CH- 2 CON..

PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

BY
F.W TAYLOR
Henry Fayol (1841-1925) F W Taylor
(1856-1915)

Henry Fayol F W Taylor

made outstanding contributions to the development of management
thoughts. Fayol is the founder of the 14 Principles of management F W
Taylor is regarded as the father of scientific management. He
introduced Principles of Scientific management.
TAYLOR’S SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

F.W. Taylor was the first person to introduce scientific methods in the
management process. He started his career as a mechanist and rose to the
position of chief engineer of Midvale steel works. He published his studies through his
entitled “ a piece rate system “ and “shop Management”. His famous book
“principles and methods of scientific management‘ was published in 1911.
That is why; Taylor is regarded as father of scientific management.”
 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT- MEANING AND DEFINITION
Scientific management refers to the application of science to
management practices. It involves the replacement of rule of thumb or
trial and error method by scientific and systematic approach in
decision making.

“Scientific management means knowing exactly what you want men to do and
seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way.”-Fredrick Winslow Taylor
(F.W.Taylor)
It includes finding the most efficient methods of production, scientific selection
and training of workers, proper allotment of duties and work and achieving
cooperation between workers and management.
Principles of Scientific management
Taylor formulated the following principles for managing the organization
scientifically
Mental Revolution
The basic idea behind the principles of scientific management is to
change the mental attitudes of the workers and the management
towards each other. Taylor called it ‘mental revolution’ .
Mental revolution has three implications
1. All efforts for increase in production
2. Creation of spirit of mutual trust and confidence
3.Developing a scientific attitude for solving problems
The management and workers should realize they require one
another. Management should share a part of surplus with workers.
Workers should perform their jobs with ultimate loyalty and discipline
This attitude will be good for both of them and ensure the prosperity
of the business.
1. ABC Ltd. is engaged in producing electricity from domestic
garbage. There is almost equal division of work and responsibility
between workers and management. The management even takes
workers into confidence before taking important decisions.
All the workers are satisfied as the behavior of the management is
very good.
1. State the principle of management described in the above para.

1m
2. Khandelwal Ltd., a tyre manufacturing concern has been
established for more than ten years. Having made good profits in the
past, company wanted to expand further and hence did not declare
bonus for the previous year. The workers got agitated and trade
union declared strike and demanded bonus and other facilities. The
management decided not to give into their demands.
2. Which principle of scientific management is overlooked in the given

case? 1m
3. In one of his principles, Taylor suggested that job performance
should be based on scientific enquiry and not on will/wish or personal
intuition of manager?
3. Name that principle. 1m
4. Hritik is desirous of setting up a small factory to manufacture
different kinds of eco-friendly packaging materials. He proposes to
adopt to logical approach to his business rather than hit and trial
method as he knows that this can result in tremendous saving of
human energy as well as wastage of time and materials. He plans to
adopt paternalistic style of management in practice in order to avoid
any kind of class-conflict that may emerge between him and the
workers. Moreover, he plans to seek the opinion of his workers before
taking any important decisions and also offers incentives to them for
providing valuable suggestions for the business.
In context of the above case:
1. Identify and explain the various principle of scientific management

that Hritik plans to apply in his business. 3m

4. Pawan is working as a Production Manager in CFL Ltd. which
manufactures CFL bulbs. There is no class-conflict between the
management and workers. The working conditions are very good. The
company is earning huge profits. As a policy, the management shares
the profits earned with the workers because they believe in the
prosperity of the employees.
2. State the principle of management described in the above

paragraph. 1m
The eight functional experts suggested by Taylor are: Under planning department:
1) Route Clerk-This foreman is responsible for determining the route/sequence of
steps for completing a particular job or task.
2) Instruction Card Clerk-He issues instruction to the workers to be followed by them
for doing their job.
 3.Time and Cost clerk-He records the time taken for starting and
completion of a job as per schedule .
and also prepares cost sheet to determine expenses for material,
labour and other overheads. .
4.Disciplinarian-He ensures that each job is systematic performance
of jobs by enforcing rules and regulations.
Under Production Department:
1.Gang Boss- He arranges all the machines, tools and other resources required
for performance of the job so that there is no delay.
2. speed Boss-This foreman assures timely completion of work.
3.Repair Boss-This foreman taken care of the maintenance of machines.
4.Inspector-This foreman keeps a check on quality control of the output.
2.Standardization and Simplification of Work
2. Standardization and simplification of work
Standardisation involves setting up of standards in every phases of business
operation. It includes uses of standard tools and equipment., methods or
lines of product, working conditions etc. for maximization of output.
Standardization would help to

a. Reduce spoilage and wastage of materials .

b. Improve the quality of work
c. Diminishing cost of production
d. Reduce fatigue of workers

Simplification means elimination of superfluous sizes ,varieties and

dimensions . Its aim is to eliminate unnecessary diversity of products and thereby
reduce costs.
3.Work study means a comprehensive and objective assessment and
analysis of all the operations involved in performing the various jobs in the
organization.
This is done with a purpose of producing maximum possible output of
the best quality at minimum costs
Work study is the term used to embraces the techniques of method study, motion
study, time study and fatigue study.

Work study = method study + motion study + Time study + Fatigue study
a. Time Study
It is a technique used to measure the time that may be taken by an average
worker of reasonable skill and efficiency to perform a job well defined job.
To conduct time study, the job is broken into a number of elements and the time
taken to complete each element is noted with the help of a stopwatch. After adding
necessary time for rest periods, the standard time of each element of the job and the
standard time for performing the complete job is determined.
Many techniques such as process charts, operation research etc are used for
this purpose.
Purpose of time study is that it helps to determine:

1.Standard time required to do a job and number of workers to be

employed.
2.A standard task/fair day‘s work for the workman
3.To determine the number of employees to be employed
4.To determine labour costs and to frame suitable incentive schemes.
2.. Motion Study
It is a technique to closely observe movements of body of a worker involved
in performing a job in order to eliminate unnecessary movements.
Aim is to identify:
o Motions that are productive
o Motions that are incidental and
o Motions that are unproductive.

. The study is generally conducted with the help of a movie camera. Experts observe
how the worker moves, and determine his productive movements, incidental
movements and unproductive movements. Then they instruct and educate workers how
to eliminate the unnecessary/ unproductive movements so that the workers get to know
the best way of doing a job
Purpose of motion study is
1. Finding the best method of doing work by developing the ideal
sequence of motions.
2. Identifying and eliminating unnecessary movements.
3.Increase efficiency and reduce labour costs.
4. Reduce human fatigue.
3. Method Study :- There may a number of possible methods of
performing a job with different cost requirements. Taylor suggests
finding ‘One best way’ of performing a job.
The purpose of method study is to minimize production costs and
use organization‘s resources such as land, labour, capital etc.
for better results.
For example, Taylor devised the concept of assembly line by using the
method study. This technique was used successfully by Ford Motor
company and is used by the auto companies even today.
4. Fatigue Study :- This technique is conducted to find out:

1.frequency of rest intervals

2.duration of rest intervals
3. and the number of rest intervals, in completing a job.
If an employee keeps working without rest pauses, physical and mental fatigue
affects the health and efficiency of workers. Excessive specialization and poor
working conditions may also cause monotony and boredom resulting in more accidents,
spoilage, absenteeism and labour turnover.

To do it scientifically, fatigue study should be conducted, by noting down:

Duration, after which, an average worker starts getting tired and his
efficiency starts decreasing.
Duration within which the worker gets refreshed to resume working.
Difference between Time Study and Motion
Study
 4. Differential Piece Rate Plan
Taylor was a strong advocate of differential piece rate plan. To bring about a
differentiation between efficient and inefficient workers, he introduced the
concept of Standard Output/„fair day‟s work‟.This is the amount of work
which an average worker working under proper working conditions can perform
during a working day

According to Taylor, two wage rates would be used; one for efficient workers producing
standard output or more, and the other for inefficient workers producing less than
standard output.

E.g Suppose Standard Output = 10 units. Workers producing Standard output or more,
would get Rs. 50 per unit while those producing less than standard output get only
Rs.40 per unit.

If worker A produces 11 units and worker B produces 9 units, their respective wage
payments would be as follows:
o A = 11 * Rs. 50 = Rs.550 o B = 9 * Rs. 40 = Rs. 360
o According to Taylor, a difference of Rs. 190 would be enough to
motivate the inefficient worker to perform better.
1. What study did Taylor make to set standard time for
work?
(a)Time study (b) Fatigue study
(c) Motion study (d) Method study
2. Under fatigue study:

(a)Tiring work is given to employees

(b)Employee’s movements are increased
(c)Record is maintained for time consumed on
employee’s work
(d) Rest is given to employees during work
3. Scientific management brings:

(a) Social change (b) Economic change

(c) Mental change (d) Industrial change
4. Management should find ‘One best way’ to perform a
task. Which technique of Scientific management is defined
in this sentence?

(a) Time Study (b) Motion Study

(c) Fatigue Study (d) Method Study
5.Wages of employees should be fixed scientifically based upon their performance.” Identify
and explain the principle mentioned here by F.W. Taylor.
__________________________________________________ 1m
6.As a part of implementing scientific management techniques in his
institution, Mr. Aravind decided to conduct work study. For that he conduct
time study, motion study and fatigue study. But he forget to conduct one
related study. Identify it._____________________________ 1m
7.Spot the odd one from the following.
a) Work study b) Time study c) Method study d) Motion study 1m
8. ___________ ensures timely and accurate completion of a job.
b) Speed boss b) Gang boss c) Route clerk d) Time boss 1m
9. Gaurika has been appointed as the chief organizer of a weeklong cultural
event. Being a staunch follower of scientific management, she decides to
execute her work by putting into practice the various techniques of scientific
management. On the basis of several observations, she is able to determine
that the standard time taken by the security officer at the gat to check the
credentials of each visitor is 30 seconds. So she decides to employ two
persons on this job for every function along with the other necessary support
staff. She considers the fact that every day, the functions will take place in
three shifts of four hours each, therefore it is important to give breaks to the
support staff even in a single shift to take her/his lunch etc. moreover, on
introspection, she determines that the best way to distribute refreshment
boxes to the visitors will be to hand it over to them at the exit gate as it would
help to save time and eliminate any kind of confusion.
In the context of the above case:
1. Identify and explain the various techniques of work study which have been

put into practice by Gaurika. 4m

9. ‘Study Buddy Pvt.’ Is company dealing in stationery items. In order to
establish standards of excellence and quality in materials and in the
performance of men and machines, the company adheres to benchmarks
during production. Moreover, its products are available in limited varieties,
sizes and dimensions thereby eliminating superfluous diversity of products.
Identify the technique of scientific management which has been adopted by
‘Study Buddy Pvt. Ltd 3m