Borg 5

Scorn and distrust between auto mechanics and customers was a problem

licensing auto mechanics was quickly dropped by the industry, which didn't want to pay higher wages.  Never became required.

the next solution was flat rates for doing particular jobs--mechanics resisted this

the next solution was to make repair appear more scientific, with impressive-looking diagnostic and testing machines (mostly combining instruments already in use).  Ford Laboratory Test Set

But auto repair was not scientific, it was done mostly with tacit knowledge


Background: Taylorism
Scientific management was invented by Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915)

• Taylor came from an rich Philadelphia family and was preparing for college but had problems with both his eyesight and family finances.  He was interested in machines so he took a apprenticeship in industry, expecting to work his way to the top
• he was shocked by how inefficient his fellow workers were
• in 1878 he went to work for Midvale Steel, first as a laborer, then as a foreman, then as chief engineer.  He started trying to find ways of getting the workers to work more efficiently
• by 1881 he was doing time and motion studies
• he studied the design of shovels and introduced a better design at Bethlehem Steel Works, reducing the number of people shoveling from 500 to 140  source
• in 1883 he earned a night school engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology and fairly soon he had a business as a consulting engineer helping businesses with worker efficiency
• in 1909 he published a book on Principles of Scientific Management

Taylor's approach was based on the principle of telling the worker how to do the job , but it had several interconnected parts:

• improved metal-cutting machines using high-speed tool steel that would cut faster without heat damaging the tool
• better layout of the shop floor
• expected factory managers to get more involved in how the work was done instead of leaving that to the workers and the foreman (paid managers were replacing entrepreneurs and not doing as good a job)
• timed workers with stopwatches, breaking down the job into parts and looking at how the parts might be done more efficiently
• Frank Gilbreth, who joined Taylor in 1907, extended this to motion study , watching how the worker moved and showing him or her how to eliminate waste motion.   Lillian Gilbreth pioneered adaptions to allow the handicapped to work.
• sought to figure out how to hire the right worker for the job and to give the worker appropriate training
• introduced incentive pay plans--workers were assumed to be motivated only by money.  The differential piece rate gave you a higher rate per piece if you worked faster.
• more efficient recordkeeping

  Taylor studying a worker Taylor thought workers would like this

• their work was made more efficient and what was expected of them was determined objectively on the basis of scientific study rather than by a boss acting as a dictator
• what do you think workers thought?
• Congress investigated complaints by government workers and the use of stopwatches was banned by law in government shops
• workers had gone on strike at the Watertown Arsenal when specialists came in with stopwatches
• Taylor blamed this on union agitators but it was in fact directed at Taylorism--skilled workers did not want to loose control of their work
• workers weren't convinced by Taylor's belief that rationalizing management so that it was fair according to scientific principles would eliminate the conflict between workers and management.
• Scientific management turned in the direction of industrial psychology ( Lillian Gilbreth was a key figure in this change) to try to get more cooperation from workers
• Taylor has continued to be controversial

 Winding Armatures at Westinghouse