Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Productivity Improvement, Science, Engineering and Management have an interesting 150 years history starting with Taylor taking up engineering education instead of law.
1875 - Taylor started his engineering education with an apprenticeship.
1880 - Founding of American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
1895
TAYLOR, F. W., "A Piece-Rate System, Being a Step Toward Partial Solution of the Labor Problem,"
Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 16, 856-903, 1895
Frederick Taylor's Productivity System for Rapidly Attaining The Maximum Productivity - Part 1
The advantages of this system of management (Taylor's Piece Rate System) are :
The manufactures are produced cheaper under it.
The system is rapid in attaining the maximum productivity of each machine and man
TAYLOR, F. W., "A Piece-Rate System, Being a Step Toward Partial Solution of the Labor Problem,"
Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 16, 856-903, 1895
A PIECE-RATE SYSTEM: BEING A STEP TOWARD PARTIAL SOLUTION OF THE LABOR PROBLEM.
BY FRED W. TAYLOR.
The system introduced by the writer (Taylor's system of productivity improvement and piece rate payment), makes each workman’s interests the same as that of his employer, pays a premium for high efficiency, and soon convinces each man that it is for his permanent advantage to turn out each day the best quality and maximum quantity of work.
The writer has endeavored in the following pages to describe the system of management introduced by him in the works of the Midvale Steel Company, of Philadelphia, which has been employed by them during the past ten years with the most satisfactory results.
( i ) An elementary rate-fixing department. - The productivity improvement department.
( 2 ) The differential rate system of piece-work.
( 3 ) What he believes to be the best method of managing men who work by the day.
Elementary rate-fixing differs from other methods of making piece-work prices in that a careful study is made of the time required to do each of the many elementary operations into which the manufacturing of an establishment may be analyzed or divided. These elementary operations are then classified, recorded, and indexed, and when a piece-work price is wanted for work the job is first divided into its elementary operations, the time required to do each elementary operation is found from the records, and the total time for the job is summed up from these data. While this method seems complicated at the first glance, it is, in fact, far simpler and more effective than the old method of recording the time required to do whole jobs of work, and then, after looking over the records of similar jobs, guessing at the time required for any new piece of work.
The differential rate system of piece-work consists, briefly, in offering two different rates for the same job, a high price per piece in case the work is finished in the shortest possible time and in perfect condition (quality emphasis), and a low price if it takes a longer time to do the job, or if there are any imperfections in the work. (The high rate should be such that the workman can earn more per day than is usually paid in similar establishments.)
The system by which the writer proposes managing the men who are on day-work consists in paying men and not positions. Each man’s wages, as far as possible, are fixed according to the skill and energy with which he performs his work, and not according to the position which he fills. Every endeavor is made to stimulate each man’s personal ambition. This involves keeping systematic and careful records of the performance of each man, as to his punctuality, attendance, integrity, rapidity, skill, and accuracy, and a readjustment from time to time of the wages paid him, in accordance with this record.
The advantages of this system of management are :
First. That the manufactures are produced cheaper under it (cost of production per unit is reduced), while at the same time the workmen earn higher wages than are usually paid.
Second . Since the rate-fixing is done from accurate knowledge instead of more or less by guess-work, the motive for holding back on work, or “ soldiering ”, and endeavoring to deceive the employers as to the time required to do work, is entirely removed, and with it the greatest cause for hard feelings and war between the management and the men.
Third. Since the basis from which piece-work as well as day rates are fixed is that of exact observation, instead of being founded upon accident or deception, as is too frequently the case under ordinary systems, the men are treated with greater uniformity and justice, and respond by doing more and better work.
Fourth, It is for the common interest of both the management and the men to cooperate in every way, so as to turn out each day the maximum quantity and best quality of work.
Fifth. The system is rapid, while other systems are slow, in attaining the maximum productivity of each machine and man ; and when this maximum is once reached, it is automatically maintained by the differential rate.
Sixth. It automatically selects and attracts the best men for each class of work, and it develops many first-class men who would otherwise remain slow or inaccurate, while at the same time it discourages and sifts out men who are incurably lazy or inferior.
Finally. One of the chief advantages derived from the above effects of the system is, that it promotes a most friendly feeling between the men and their employers, and so renders labor unions and strikes unnecessary.
There has never been a strike under the differential rate system of piece-work, although it has been in operation for the past ten years in the steel business, which has been during this period more subject to strikes and labor troubles than almost any other industry. In describing the above system of management the writer has been obliged to refer to other piece-work methods, and to indicate briefly what he believes to be their shortcomings.
1903
Paper Shop Management presented in ASME Conference.
F.W. Taylor - Shop Management - With Appropriate Sections
1906
Taylor - Productivity Science and Art of Metal Cutting - Important Points
1907 - 1908 - Industrial Engineering course was started by Prof. Diemer in Penn State College.
1910
F.W. Taylor
Important Points of Prof. Diemer's Description of Taylor's Industrial Engineering
- Analyze each engineering process into its ultimate, simple elements, and develop ideal or perfect elements.
- Make all due allowances for rational and practical conditions and establish an attainable commercial unit time production standard for every step.
- The next step is attaining continuously the unit time production standard, involving both quality and quantity for each element.
- Process integration - Assembling the improved prime elements into a well-arranged, well-built, smooth-running engineering process (machine).
- The industrial engineer must be able to select mechanical devices, people and perfect the organization that suits present needs and secures prompt returns in profit.
- Engineering as applied to production means the planning in advance of production so as to secure certain results.
- The engineer calculates and plans with absolute certainty of the accomplishment of the final results in accordance with his plans, which are based ultimately on fundamental truths of natural science.
- The mechanical engineer has to do with the design, construction, testing, and operating of machines. The mechanical engineer designs with certainty of correct operation and adequate strength. Industrial engineering (Production engineering) has to do with the output of men and machines. It requires a knowledge of both. The product involved may be anything that is made by or with the aid of machinery.
- It is the business of the Industrial engineer (production engineer) to know every single item that constitutes his finished product, and every step involved in the handling of every piece. He must know what is the most advantageous manufacturing quantity of every single item so as to secure uniformity of flow as well as economy of manufacture. He must know how long each step ought to take under the best attainable working conditions.
Process/operation element analysis was described in detail by H.B. Maynard.
TAYLOR'S INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING - PROF. DIEMER
The first president of ASME in 1880 pointed out that engineers have to make efforts to reduce cost or products. Mr. Henry R. Towne laid the foundation for cost reduction by engineers (industrial engineering) through his paper "The Engineer as an Economist." Towne also described his conception of industrial engineering in a 1905 convocation address to Purdue Engineering Students. Prof. Diemer specially describes the concept of industrial engineering according to F.W. Taylor.
Mr. Taylor is the earliest and foremost advocate of engineering management and industrial engineering. Taylor's contribution to production management is well known though his works shop management and scientific management. His contribution to industrial engineering is not that direct through specific works. But he is credited as the father of industrial engineering as his ideas and works became industrial engineering in practice and theory. As early as 1889, Mr. Taylor earnestly pleaded that shop statistics and cost data should be more than mere records, and that they in themselves constituted but a small portion of the field of investigation to be covered by the industrial engineer. While he did not so express himself, the gist of his treatment of factory management is this:
He considers a manufacturing establishment just as one would an intricate machine. He analyzes each process into its ultimate, simple elements, and compares each of these simplest steps or processes with an ideal or perfect condition. He then makes all due allowances for rational and practical conditions and establishes an attainable commercial standard for every step. The next process is that of attaining continuously this standard, involving both quality and quantity, and the interlocking or assembling of all of these prime elements into a well-arranged, well-built, smooth-running machine. It is quite evident that work of this character involves technical knowledge and ability in science and pure engineering, which do not enter into the field of the accountant. Yet the industrial engineer must have the accountant's keen perception of money values. His work will not be good engineering unless he uses good business judgment. He must be able to select those mechanical devices and perfect such organization as will best suit present needs and secure prompt returns in profit. He must have sufficiently good business sense to appreciate the ratio between investment and income.
The industrial engineer to-day must be as competent to give good business advice to his corporation as is the skilled corporation attorney. Upon his sound judgment and good advice depend very frequently the making or losing of large fortunes. Mr. James Newton Gunn is responsible for the use of the term " production engineer" or "industrial engineer" in speaking of the engineer who has to do with plant efficiency.
The word "production" indicates the making or manufacturing of commodities. Engineering as applied to production means the planning in advance of production so as to secure certain results. A man may be a good mechanic but no engineer. The distinction between the mechanic and the engineer is that the mechanic cuts and tries, and works by formulae based on empiricism. The engineer calculates and plans with absolute certainty of the accomplishment of the final results in accordance with his plans, which are based ultimately on fundamental truths of natural science.
The mechanical engineer has to do with the design, construction, testing, and operating of machines. The mechanical engineer designs with certainty of correct operation and adequate strength. Production engineering has to do with the output of men and machines. It requires a knowledge of both. The product involved may be anything that is made by or with the aid of machinery.
It is the business of the production engineer to know every single item that constitutes his finished product, and every step involved in the handling of every piece. He must know what is the most advantageous manufacturing quantity of every single item so as to secure uniformity of flow as well as economy of manufacture. He must know how long each step ought to take under the best attainable working conditions. He must be able to tell at any time the exact condition as regards quantity and state of finishedness of every part involved in his manufacturing process.
The engineer must be able not only to design, but to execute. A draftsman may be able to design, but unless he is able to execute his designs to successful operation he cannot be classed as an engineer. The production engineer must be able to execute his work as he has planned it. This requires two qualifications in addition to technical engineering ability: He must know men, and he must have creative ability in applying good statistical, accounting, and "system" methods to any particular production work he may undertake.
With regard to men, he must know how to stimulate ambition, how to exercise discipline with firmness, and at the same time with sufficient kindness to insure the good-will and cooperation of all. The more thoroughly he is versed in questions of economics and sociology, the better prepared will he be to meet the problems that will daily confront him. As economic production depends not only on equipment and plant, but on the psychological effect of wage systems, he must be able to discriminate in regard to which wage system is best applicable to certain classes of product.
Hugo Diemer defined or explained Industrial Engineering in chapter I in his book published in 1910.
FIRST EDITION
McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, NEW YORK
1910
Hugo Diemer defined or explained Industrial Engineering in chapter I in his book published in 1910.
FACTORY ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION BY HUGO DIEMER, M.E.
Professor of Industrial Engineering, Pennsylvania State College; Consulting Industrial EngineerFIRST EDITION
McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, NEW YORK
1910
https://archive.org/details/factoryorganiza00diemgoog
Above link was accessed by me on 8.10.2022. The book available is 3rd edition published in 1921. See page 11. Point 15. It was mentioned that in the first edition of the book, the writer outlined the methods of industrial engineer. It was briefly given again this edition.
The first edition of the book is available at
Hugo Diemer started industrial engineering with first teaching a subject, then starting a 2-year program and then a 4-year program.
1911
F.W. Taylor Scientific Management - With Appropriate Sections
1915
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT
HUGO DIMER1915
https://archive.org/stream/industrialorgan00diemgoog/industrialorgan00diemgoog_djvu.txt
Qualifications of Time-Study Observer
(pp. 203 to 207)It is desirable, although not absolutely essential, that the observer be trained in the trade under observation. College training in laboratory practice in which a man has become accustomed to taking accurate readings is good preparation for this work, provided it has been followed by some shop
training in the trade involved.
The workman on whom the time study is made should always be informed of its purpose, and his interest and co-operation secured. Time study for the purpose of getting the motion and time elements should always be made on first-class men, and such percentage of extra time added in establishing a time limit as will afford an incentive for the average man.
It is customary to pay an advance over a man's ordinary rate when he is acting as a subject for time
and motion studies. This extra pay is in no sense in the nature of a bribe, but it is in recognition of the fact that the man is being called upon to assist in a higher grade f work, since he and the time-study man are now doing team work of a research nature, which is a higher grade of work than ordinary production. The workman may be called upon by the time-study man to stop suddenly in the midst of a process, and to think about certain motion elements involved, and discuss whether these elements are ordinary practice, or whether a certain improvement, short cut, or device suggested by the time-study man is feasible or not, and many similar matters.
Preparation of the Instruction Card
An instruction card is the synthetic or constructive result of the analytic or observational operation known as the time study. It will be noticed that in the instruction card each element or sub-operation is distinctly listed and the standard time which has been agreed on is listed after each sub-operation.
After the time-study work has progressed to such an extent that a considerable variety of standard elemental operations and times have been listed and filed, the building-up of the instruction card for a new piece will consist very largely in assembling these standard elements, leaving only a few elements remaining, for which the time can frequently be figured from known data, so that the actual time-study work becomes less all the time, and the result of every additional time study becomes more and more extensive.
Doing the Work According to Instructions
Where the men have never worked under instruction cards, it will require patient and systematic training and an insistence on careful reading and following of the individual steps of the elemental operation instructions. At the beginning men who have been accustomed to looking at the time consumed on a job merely in the light of the total time are apt to consider impossible the time reductions indicated on most instruction cards.
The writer had experience of this sort in the assembling of automobiles and of engine-governors. After considerable preliminary work in planning and getting materials and tools ready, accompanied by careful time studies, it was decided to offer a bonus in the case of automobile-assembling, beginning at 100 total hours of assemblers' time. The best previous record had been 225 hours. With careful handling of the men the time was reduced at the first to 90 hours and ultimately it was a common occurrence for the total assembling time to take no longer than 65 or 70 hours. In the case of steam-engine governors a great deal of time had been lost by reason of poor fits and the necessity of having the assemblers do a great deal of filing. After the adoption of standard limits on the parts which were to be fitted together, the total time of assembling governors was reduced to about one-third of the former time.
A skilled demonstrator or leader needs to remain with the workers until they are able to do the tasks specified in the instruction cards, and within the time limits designated. When a job has reached the stage where it is continuously done in the time specified, it can be safely left alone. Frequently, however, after considerable savings have been made on work done by an experienced man or group of men, when a new man or group of men undertakes the same task, it takes a much longer time. Under these circumstances it is quite likely that the services of the demonstrator or leader will be again required.
2017
Principles of Industrial Engineering - Taylor - Narayana Rao
2020
THE NEW INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING (2020): CREATING ENTERPRISE EXCELLENCE
An Article in Maynard's Industrial and Systems Engineering Handbook, 6th Edition - Edited by Prof. Bopaya M. Bidanda
Publication - Job Shop Lean: An Industrial Engineering Approach to Implementing Lean in High-Mix Low-Volume Production Systems By Shahrukh A. Irani.
2021
#IISEAnnual2021 - Captains of Industry Forum with Apple CEO Tim Cook - Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6kcA8weV90
Important point made. - Industrial engineers are not happy with status quo. They are constantly in search of improvement and innovation
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023
Publication:
Maynard's Industrial and Systems Engineering Handbook, 6th Edition - Edited by Prof. Bopaya M. Bidanda
2025
2025 India National Productivity Week - 12 - 18 February Theme - From Ideas to Impact: Protecting Intellectual Property for Competitive Startups.
The theme for Productivity Week 2025 provides a crucial platform to address the interconnected challenges and opportunities related to innovation, intellectual property (IP), and productivity within the Indian startup ecosystem.
For industrial engineers innovation and productivity are important themes to focus on.
IEs have to organize events, participate in the event actively and promote industrial engineering as the department, function and discipline to promote productivity through innovation.
I am collecting background material to support industrial engineers in preparing for the events of the week.
Background Material - 2025 India National Productivity Week - February 12- 18, Theme - From Ideas to Impact: Protecting Intellectual Property for Competitive Startups.
How Industrial Engineering is Changing the World in 2025?
AIIEM
Mission
Our mission is to empower industrial engineers and managers across the Middle East and North Africa by enhancing their skills and knowledge, enabling them to meet evolving market demands. We are committed to fostering education, promoting professional development, and conducting essential market research to create sustainable solutions in the educational sector.
No comments:
Post a Comment