Fredrick W. Taylor proposed a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows.

Taylorism (or Scientific Management) is an origin of modern Operations Management.

Taylor believed in a scientific management based on observation, measurement, analysis and

improvement of work methods, and economic incentives. He studied work methods in great detail to
identify the best method for doing each job. Using time and motion study, Taylor broke each job down
into its individual motions, and analyzed these to determine which were essential. By eliminating
unnecessary motions, the workers became more productive. According to Taylorism, the task of factory
management was to determine the best way for the workers to the job, to provide the proper tools and
training, and to provide incentive for good performance.
Taylorism requires a high level of managerial control over employee work practices. Taylor believed that
management should be responsible for planning, carefully selecting and training workers, finding the
best way to perform each job, achieving cooperation between management and workers, and
separating management activities from work studies. Taylor was called to testify at the halls of Congress
in 1911 and published his classic book, The Principles of Scientific Management.

Taylorism has transformed craft production into mass production by dividing the whole process into
essential tasks and specializing each task. Conveyor belt system at Ford would be regarded as an
implementation of Taylorism. During the early 20th century, automobile were coming into vogue in the
US. Fords Model T was such as success that the company had trouble keeping up with orders for the
cars. In an effort to improve the efficiency of operations, Ford adopted the scientific management
principles espoused by Taylor. Ford introduced the moving assembly line, which had a tremendous
impact on production methods in many industries. His contribution was the introduction of mass
production to the automotive industry, a system of production in which large volume of standardized
goods are produced by low-skilled or semiskilled workers using highly specialized, and often costly
equipment.

Another concept used by Ford was the division of labor, which Adam Smith wrote about in The Wealth
of Nations. Division of labor means that an operation, such as assembling an automobile, is divided up
into a series of many small tasks, and individual workers are assigned to one of those tasks. Unlike craft
production, where each worker was responsible for doing many tasks, and thus required skill, with
division of labor the tasks were so narrow that virtually no skill was required.

Taylorism and Fordism can be regarded as foundations of traditional manufacturing strategy. However,
both of them have been challenged by Japanese manufacturing strategy, Just-in-Time (JIT) philosophy
and others such as Theory-of-Constraints (TOC) philosophy. You will learn JIT from the first textbook and
TOC from the second textbook, respectively.

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Criticize Taylorism and Fordism. If you are a business operations manager, would you apply both of
them in your organization? Why? Otherwise, why not?
You may find other perspectives or characteristics of Taylorism and Fordism. You should add reference,
if any.

When you write an essay, save it as a PDF file and use the following format:

Font size: 11 pt.

Spacing: one and half spacing
Margin: 1 inch for top, bottom, left and right.
Header (Left side): Topic name
Header (Right side): Your name
Length: 500 words
DO NOT PROVIDE ANY HEADING. ITS JUST AN ESSAY IN PARAGRAPH FORM.

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