Friday, July 2, 2021

Taylor Society Bulletin on Industrial Engineering - Taylor's Way

Accompanying Reading/Case: Information for IE: Productivity Improvement Technology in Grinding - 2020.


In course so far, we read number of lessons based on the original papers of Taylor, Gilbreth and Emerson. Then we read ideas of Hugo Diemer and Going. Before going to the second generation of industrial engineers, it is important to highlight the contribution of Taylor Society in developing Taylor's thoughts. A careful review of the papers published in its bulletins will reveal development of industrial engineering and scientific management in companies working in different branches of engineering. Industrial engineering programs have generally ignored the implementation of scientific management in power plants etc. described in papers of Taylor Society Bulletin.

The ideas expressed in "The Origin and Nature of Scientific Management" by Harlow S. Person, Managing Director of the Taylor Society, New York are important to know important aspects of Taylor's thought.

You can compare the ideas in expressed in the paper by Person with functions of industrial engineering proposed by Narayana Rao.




Young Taylor reasoned that it is management's business to know what is a proper day's work to increase productivity in the factory, to sell products at lower prices by producing them at lower cost and providing higher wages to the operators. Taylor had seen the possibility at that point of time, when the scientific investigation of production by machines was not undertaken. Taylor pioneered the field of productivity research. The only way to know is by research and experiment. Thereupon he requested and secured permission to conduct "some experiments." Almost immediately, however, they yielded results in the nature of measured procedures and possibilities of work which put supervision and management of his gang, and later of the entire shop, on a factual basis. The body of interlocking procedures which resulted from these investigations came to be known as the "Taylor System," and to the doctrine and principles later derived from them was given the name "Scientific Management." 

Machines under the supervision of Taylor  were working chiefly on heavy products, locomotive drive-wheel tires and locomotive axles, in which the total operation times are long, and the units of these distinct and measurable. The role of machines were very high compared to role of machinist. Circumstances permitted him to master a technique of controlled experiment. In his scientific method he held all variables constant except that at the  moment under observation, and he developed methods to induce controlled variation in the variable under investigation. He studied variations in the condition of shafting, belting, speeds of the machine, shape and temper of the tools, feed of the tool into the material being cut, composition, preparation and availability of materials, methods and motions of the worker, and so on (Elements of machine work or operation). His primary purpose was to discover best conditions of the use of facilities. He soon discovered for each operation a standard combination of elemental conditions which, if established and maintained during an operation, would permit increases in output amounting in some instances to several hundred per cent, not only without adding to the fatigue of the worker. There may be diminution of fatigue, as now the operator is working with correct posture,  skill and tools and therefore becomes less fatigued than the awkward amateur working in his own way under the pressure of completing the job.

The principal point of view from which he considered the effect of every change in a variable was the length of time it took to perform an operation, quality of product according to specification being always a condition precedent to the recording of these time data. Time being such an important factor in cost generally, any condition which resulted in diminution of time was considered an improved condition (If all other inputs are the same, time is proportional to cost directly).

Gradually Taylor developed a procedure of utilization of the information thus acquired. the logical steps give a fair and informing picture of the evolution,

1. Experiment. The first step of managerial procedure which he developed was continuing experiment — measurement, classification and filing of the results. Every operation was studied, and then restudied as new materials, machines, appliances, tools and skills became factors. Research, although not to the outside world the most conspicuous, became the basic element of Taylor procedure; and it should be noted that this research, although in many instances inspired by interest in pure science, was motivated primarily by the desire to discover the laws of manufacturing economy.

2. Standards. The second step of procedure was the formulation of the laws of manufacturing economy in the form of standards of facilities and of individual and cooperative conduct. Specifications of materials and materials handling, machines, machine adjustments for each operation, proper tools for each operation, times for each operation — even the best type of worker for each operation — were made common, information in standing orders, special orders, drawings, lists of materials, instruction cards and similar documents. The purpose of publication of these standards was to establish certainties in the place of variability and guess as a basis for calculation in industrial operations.

3. Planning of Work. The third important step was to develop elements of procedure which were the most visible because it involved the most documents and attracted the most attention. This step was for many years assumed by the superficially informed to constitute the whole of the Taylor System — the systematic planning and directing of work throughout processing. This element was not as basically new as the two elements mentioned above, for managers had always to some degree planned and supervised work in process, and Taylor got many elements of his planning and control mechanism from other shops. But he integrated mechanisms into an interlocking whole, and the degree to which planning and precise control were developed by him was so great in quantity as to create a new qualitative situation. Planning generally had not been effective because it was based on so many chance factors. Now, with the aid of standardization, calculations could be made with a fair degree of certainty. This made possible the planning-room procedures of routing, scheduling and complete and economical utilization of facilities. It was this precise control through planning and preparation which secured most of the results of increased productivity by eliminating idle times and misapplied efforts, which are the result of  many different causes under uncontrolled conditions.

4. Maintenance of Standards. The fourth significant step was the development of procedures for systematic inspection of conditions and performance, for the purpose of maintaining the established standards upon which precise planning and control were based. The operations of an enterprise are the affairs of normal human beings and are subject to all influences of human nature — misunderstanding, inertia, inhibitions, carelessness, laziness. Training to do things according to a
newly discovered "best way in the present state of the art," is a condition of learning with all the backslidings that result from the struggle between old and new patterns of conduct. A man may resolve to do a piece of work in a newly discovered best way with all the enthusiasm with which he resolves to grease and oil his new automobile precisely as set forth in the instructions ; but six months later performance has declined from high resolve as badly in the one case as in the other —and for the same reasons. Therefore Taylor incorporated a system of inspection of materials, methods and costs into his general system of planning and control, utilizing for this purpose the identical documents used in the planning and control procedures.

The concept that a day's work could be measured and predetermined did not occur to them, and when suggested by Taylor was summarily dismissed by ASME members. So he decided to present a paper, and in order to have it accepted as pertinent to the problem of dominant interest he made it an exposition of a method of wage payment which he had devised. But his real intention was to cloak under discussion of that subject an argument concerning the possibility of productivity improvement and the necessity of measuring the time required to do a machine task or an operator task and reduce the time using science developed by managers. Practically no attention was paid to his concept of the measurement and control of a day's work by ASME members. This concept was ignored apparently as impracticable. He thereupon decided to present another paper which should be an outright discussion of management, and in 1903 he offered "Shop Management." The discussion of this paper also failed to stimulate sympathetic interest in the idea that a day's work could be measured. It was not until eight years later, at the Eastern Rate Case hearings of 1910-1911 which gave Taylor ideas a sudden vogue under the name of "Scientific Management," that critical analyses of his doctrine and methods were forthcoming.

 The critical analyst of today,  has  to recast Taylor's thought  in a new perspective. The present author is accustomed to present the principles in the form given below. This is based on analyses of the Taylor system as designed by Taylor and as it has developed under modern conditions, on Taylor's published statements concerning scientific management, and not least, on his unpublished explanations and exhortations to those young men who were associated with him in his work. It adds nothing new to the content of scientific management as explained by him, and is different only in its later perspective and in its arrangement and emphasis to answer the dominant questions of 1929.

A 1929 Statement of Principles.

1. Management Research. Research, investigation and experiment (with their processes of analysis,
measurement, comparison, etc.) constitute the only sound basis for the solution of managerial problems ; for determinations of purpose, policy, program, project, product, material, machine, tool, type of ability or skill, method and other factors, and the coordination of these in purposeful effort.

2. Management Standards. To make them useful to an enterprise, the results of research, investigation and experiment must be made available to the cooperating group in the form of defined and published standards which serve as common goals, facilities and methods, and which replace chance and variable factors by constants in terms of which may be made calculations and plans which may be expected to come true.

3. Management Control. There must be established a systematic procedure, based on the defined standards, for the execution of work; a procedure which directs the researches, establishes and maintains the standards, initiates operations and controls work in process; which facilitates each specialized effort and coordinates all specialized efforts, to the end that the common objective may be achieved with a minimum of waste of human and material energies, and with a maximum of
human welfare and contentment.

4. Cooperation. Durably effective management requires recognition of the natural laws of cooperation : involving the integration of individual interests and desires with group interests and desires and of
individual capacities with the requirements of group purposes ; the substitution of the laws of situations for individual authority, guess and whim ; and the recognition and capitalization of human differences, motives, desires and capacities in the promotion of a common purpose.

It is obvious to one experienced in human affairs, and particularly in enterprises in which many types of individuality must join in common effort, that here is not an inflexible system of procedures which can be bought and installed like a boiler or a loom ; that on the contrary here is something of an organic nature which, although it may be conceived and guided by an outstanding leadership, must be based on a harmony of desires and understandings within the group. That is one reason why there are so few complete developments of scientific management, even though American industry generally has been profoundly influenced by its spirit and has come to utilize practically all of its mechanisms. In the first place, most managers are reluctant, except under the compulsion of circumstances, to undertake revolutionary improvement ; in the second place, because of natural basic conditions of prosperity in America, there has not been general compulsion toward ideals and methods marking a radical departure from opportunism. The urge for a consistent and well-rounded development of scientific management, as distinguished from unconscious influence of its spirit and conscious appropriation of some of its waste-saving mechanisms, has been felt chiefly by those rare leaders who are naturally responsive to ideals of perfection in technical accomplishment and In human relations."


Compare the above principles with the framework and principles presented by Prof. Narayana Rao in 2017, summarizing the evolution of industrial engineering over the 100+ years, since Taylor.

Productivity Science - Productivity Engineering - Productivity Management

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Principles of Industrial Engineering - Taylor - Narayana Rao - IISE 2017 Pittsburgh Conference Paper



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU8CdWfZZdU
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Society

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000600047  Full view up to 1923

Maintenance of Industrial Standards
Victor S. Karabasz
1930 Bulletin of Taylor Society
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=DtXNAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA31#v=onepage&q&f=false

Bass Business Library
https://digital.libraries.ou.edu/cdm/search/collection/Taylor


The Red Taylorist: The Life and Times of Walter Nicholas Polakov

Diana Kelly
Emerald Group Publishing, 15-Jun-2020 - Business & Economics - 205 pages

The Red Taylorist traces the adult life and works of Walter Polakov, focusing on his socialist scientific management ideals and the ways these were constrained by conventionality in the USA in the first half of twentieth century. Tracing Polakov's activities and achievements, this book explores the contradictions of a prolific writer, socialist engineer and scientific management ideologue in the decades until his death in 1948.

Written from a management history scholarly perspective, it presents a unique and detailed viewpoint. There have been no prior biographies on Polakov, and very few on his fellow scientific managers, consulting engineers, or like-minded public intellectuals. Moreover, perceptions of scientific management or Taylorism have tended to emphasise the negative impacts on workers, whereas Polakov's socialist commitment suggests a much more nuanced approach.

Aimed at scholars of management and history of management, Diana Kelly offers a detailed narrative of this important individual, while greatly enriching understanding of the broader historical and industrial context.
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=6sDoDwAAQBAJ


Related article
https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2012/09/bulletin-of-taylor-society-articles.html


Updated 2 July 2021
Pub 18 June 2020

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