Taylorism

What is Taylorism?

Taylorism is a production model centered on the use of Scientific methodsThis is based mainly on the division of labor, execution of the production process and specialization of workers. It was developed by the engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor, which was based on the scientific model of thermodynamics exposed by N. Carnot.

The origin of Taylorism dates back to the practices that began to be carried out in the city of Philadelphia in the steel factory Midvale Steel Company in the year 1878, where the engineer Taylor showed a slow pace of work on the part of the workers because they considered that overproduction would induce a decrease in the number of workers. Therefore Taylor implemented strategies using the scientific method in the planning of tasks to be carried out, division of labor, production time, among others, which increased the productivity of the workers and the company. Subsequently, and as a consequence of the measures adopted by Taylor, it was evidenced that the increase in productivity produced a decrease in production costs and therefore the demand for the products in the market was increased due to the more accessible prices.

Due to the results obtained, Taylorism began to spread as a successful production model. One of the aspects that facilitated the spread of Taylorism in Europe was the support of the educational sector since, for example, in Germany the teaching of Scientific Management was mandatory in the training plans.

Characteristics of Taylorism

The main characteristics of Taylorism as a production model are:

• Concentration of efforts to increase productivity.
• Specialization of the stages of the production process.
• Structuring of work in scientific bases discarding empirical execution (ORT Rational Work Organization)
• Increase in production decreasing costs and therefore increasing the cost effectiveness.
• Market expansion to a greater number of clients, with an accessible price due to the decrease in production costs.
• Detailed division of labor among workers reducing work execution times.
• Emergence of assembly lines due to the specialized dedication of the operators in each assigned work task.
• Increase in productivity in processes.
• Task standardization that make up the production model.
• Supervision Y functional monitoring of the production process.

Principles of Taylorism

The principles adopted by this production model are the following:

1. Planning principle: develop scientific methods of specialization (division) of work that optimize and replace empirical tasks performed by employees in a habitual or customary way and also eliminating or simplifying useless movements. This principle seeks that through the scientific method the work is carried out in the most efficient way possible in each specific stage of the production process.
2. Preparation principle: workers are selected and assigned to specific tasks according to their operational capacity, skills and aptitudes (specialization), providing them with the necessary training to enhance their skills and therefore maximize productivity efficiency.
3. Control principle: it consists of supervising the work of the employees to guarantee that the tasks are carried out efficiently and in accordance with the specific instructions that were provided by the administration.
4. Execution principle: The efficiency of the production process leads to a shared responsibility in the administration and the workers as follows:
   1. The administration is responsible for ensuring that work planning is adequately and correctly transmitted to its workers. Within these planning tasks, one can cite for example: the method of the work to be carried out, the time of completion of the work, the conditions in which the work is carried out, among others.
   2. The workers are responsible for the execution of the work according to the instructions given by the administration.

Advantages and disadvantages of Taylorism

Advantage

The advantages of Taylorism are:

• Increase productivity and efficiency in the production process.
• Scientific standardization of the stages of the production process.
• Decrease in production costs.
• Increase in cost effectiveness Y demand of the products.
• Higher supervision about production times.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages of Taylorism are:

• Their individualism diminished the personal ambition of the workers who obtained with the individual bonuses and who fomented the competition between the workers.
• Demotivation of workers due to the physical and cognitive risks generated by the execution of monotonous and repetitive tasks that disqualify human work.
• Reduction of rest times which increased the intensity of work performed by employees.
• Fuzzy chain of command because the workers had several bosses and supervisors.

Taylorism, Fordism and Toyotism

Similarities

The similarities between Taylorism, Fordism, and Toyotism are:

• One of its main goals was improve production processes.
• They were looking for minimize production costs.
• Production models developed for industrial sectors.
• Waste reduction.

Differences

The differences between Taylorism, Fordism, and Toyotism are: