Frederick Taylor – Management Guru. Part 4.
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His opportunity came in 1898 when he was offered a job as manager of the Bethlehem Steel Works. Taylor couldn’t wait to start work. For his first test, he chose the simplest of all the jobs in the factory. This was the job of moving pieces of iron from one place to another. For weeks, Taylor and his assistants studied the workers. They found out the best way to pick up a piece of iron. They used watches to find out how quickly a worker could carry a piece of iron over a certain distance. They also decided how much rest a worker needed in order to work as hard as possible. They tried to answer the question: what happens if we manage a human being in the same way that we operate a machine?
When their study was finished, Taylor sat down with his assistants and explained his findings.
‘According to our study,’ said Taylor, ‘a good worker can move between forty-seven and forty-eight tons of iron a day.’
‘But that’s strange,’ said one of the assistants. ‘At the moment they only move twelve tons a day.’
‘Exactly,’ said Taylor. ‘Isn’t it great? We have a chance to show everyone that scientific management really produces results.’
‘But how will we make these people work in our new way?’ asked another assistant.
‘No problem,’ said Taylor. ‘The harder they work, the more they’ll earn. The company will be happy and the worker will be happy. No one can lose!’
Next they needed a worker to test the results of the study. Taylor’s assistants now knew all the workers very well and they immediately suggested a young man called Schmidt. He was big and strong and he had a young family, so it was certain that he needed more money.
At the factory one day, Taylor called Schmidt to him.
‘Schmidt,’ said Taylor. ‘Are you an expensive man or a cheap man?’
Schmidt looked at him and thought hard.
‘What do you mean?’ he asked.
‘Oh, really, Mr Schmidt,’ said Taylor, ‘it’s not a very difficult question. Let me say it another way. Would you prefer to earn $1.15 an hour or $1.85?’
Schmidt still seemed uncertain, so Taylor continued, ‘I think, Mr Schmidt, that you’d prefer to earn $1.85. Everyone prefers to earn more for their time. It’s a law of human nature.’
‘Maybe,’ agreed Schmidt.
‘Excellent,’ said Taylor. ‘Now, if you want to earn $1.85, you must do exactly as I tell you. When I tell you to pick up a piece of iron, you pick it up. When I tell you to walk, you walk. And when I tell you to rest, you rest. Do you agree?’
The other workers were shaking their heads.
‘Don’t listen to him,’ they called to their colleague. But Schmidt was already thinking of the extra money.
‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’ll do it.’
Schmidt did exactly as he was told and he was soon moving 60 per cent more iron every day. The extra money that he earned made a big difference to his life. The other workers didn’t like Taylor’s ideas, but they also didn’t like the fact that Schmidt was earning much more money than them. One by one, they agreed to use Taylor’s new method of working.
But many of the workers found that they couldn’t earn as much as Schmidt, simply because they weren’t as strong as him. In fact, seven out of eight workers couldn’t work as hard as Taylor asked. Taylor saw only one solution; they had to leave.
Some of the other managers at the company started to worry.
‘Are you sure your new method is fair?’ they asked him.
‘Of course, it is,’ replied Taylor. ‘These men do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. Of course, it’s sad that some people have to leave. But one of the most important things about good management is finding the right man for the right job.’
Taylor soon started to organize the work of the rest of the factory in the same way. First, he watched the workers and measured the speed of every move they made. Then he decided on the quickest way of doing each job and taught that method to the workers. Finally, he chose the best workers for every job and told the others to find work somewhere else. Again, the results were excellent.
But Taylor’s attitude was making him more and more enemies at Bethlehem. The workers liked earning more money, but they hated Taylor’s methods. The company’s owners weren’t sure of him, especially because he was again spending large amounts of money on new equipment. In May 1901, he was sacked. Although Taylor was only forty-five, it was the last manager’s job that he had in his life.