Taylorism

Matt Vidal

Taylorism is a set of ideas regarding factory management developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856–1915) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States under the name of “scientific management.” The core of Taylorism is a system of task management in which managers and engineers are responsible for planning and task optimization, primarily through motion and time study, while workers are responsible for carrying out discrete tasks as directed. The so-called scientific management movement, which began in earnest in the late 19th century, drew on some earlier ideas, most famously those of Charles Babbage(1791–1871)and W. S. Jevons(1835–1882). Babbage emphasized how the division of labor within the factory contributes to operational efficiency by subdividing work into distinct tasks that could be completed by specialists. Both Babbage and Jevons advocated the systematic analysis of work, including collection and use of data obtained by observing work processes. Toward the end ...

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