Scientific Management Flashcards
Scientific Management was a notion established by Fredric Taylor and first introduced in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Fredric Taylor
Taylors system was a theory of management that first analyses and then synthesises workflow to gain the best form of production.
form of production
While these ideas lost some momentum during the mid 1900s, they have made an incredible comeback since the technological revolution of the late 1900s.
technological revolution
One example of the return of the concepts of Scientific Management is fast food chains like McDonalds.
fast food
McDonalds is a world-wide organisation known for its consistency of food items regardless of location or staffing constraints; a Big Mac is a Big Mac no matter where in the world you are.
consistency
This is achieved by using consistent ingredients and instituting a highly standardised production procedure.
highly standardised
This essay considers the main principles of Scientific Management and how they are being applied in the modern fast food chain, McDonalds.
main principles
The first principle of Taylors system is to create a science of work, which involves determining the ‘one best way’ of doing a particular task and then determining the optimum time for completing that task. This then becomes the standard.
‘one best way’
Taylor recommended that organisations perform careful experiments to establish the most efficient means of accomplishing tasks.
efficient means
As an example, one former employee of McDonalds explained the current process related to making a burger. The process he described was governed precisely by defined steps and timed alarms that indicated step completion. Each step followed a particular order, it was timed, and each ingredient was measured; the outcome was entirely predictable. Every burger was exactly the same and took exactly the prescribed amount of time to complete.
example
McDonalds have engineered a ‘one best way’ of making their burgers and other items.
engineered
The second principle of Scientific Management is the careful selection and training of workers.
selection and training
Taylor believed that workers should be matched to the task that they were best suited and then trained in the ‘one best way’ of completing that task.
matched
If the worker was performing below expected, then they must be retrained.
retrained
For example, another former employee of McDonalds described her first day on the job. Her task was to make the French fries, apparently the easiest task in the restaurant. She was shown a short instructional video outlining the process to make French fries and then set to work. She claimed there was no difficulty completing the task and the items she made were correct, because the instructions were accurate and precise.
example
McDonalds is able to fit this inexperienced worker with a task and train her to competence in just fifteen minutes.
worker
The third principle is to bring science and the scientifically trained worker together.
together
By this Taylor meant that workers should be specialised and that their tasks be clearly defined, additionally, the tasks should be simplified as much as is possible.
specialised
This would include instruction cards, and both performance and production reviews.
performance and production
For example, the first employee mentioned above was a veteran of several years and worked on the most difficult team, making the actual burgers. His description style of the process, or perhaps his deep indoctrination, indicated that he was almost as mechanised in his thinking about making burgers as the task itself was mechanised, thus he was perfectly suited to this high stress area of the restaurant. The employee claimed that you didn’t need to know how to cook you just needed to follow the procedures to make a perfect burger.
example
McDonalds have combined the science and the trained worker for optimal effect.
optimal effect
The forth principle of Taylor’s design was an equal division of labour in which the managers spend their time planning and training, allowing the workers to perform their tasks efficiently.
equal division
One McDonalds store manager described the ways in which he was able to turn a poorly performing store around with exercises aimed at challenging and motivating an underachieving but essentially good work team.
described
His role was clearly defined as managing the workers so that they could best perform the work.
role
McDonalds have taken Taylor’s ideas and created a system that works the world over and produces the same burgers in over a hundred different countries.
hundred
This would not have been possible without rigid training followed by exact measured procedures.
training
