Scientific Management for Most of

Scientific Management For most of history products have been made by skilled craftsmen who learned their craft after long apprenticeships, and had complete control over the entire production process. But in 1911, Fredrick Taylor's the Principles of Scientific Management changed the way things were produced forever. Taylor's hypothesis stated that applying scientific principles to the management of workers in the production process could improve efficiency and productivity. Since the introduction of Taylor's idea, the principle of scientific management has permeated American business in ways that most people do not even realize.

One example of a place everyone visits on a regular basis is a supermarket, but if one analyzes the organization of a supermarket, one can see the principles of scientific management in practice. The Principles of Scientific Management introduced the idea that the management of workers along scientific principles can greatly improve both the efficiency and productivity of the entire production process.

Instead of the old system of skilled craftsmen, the production process was broken down into individual steps where an unskilled worker could be trained to accomplish one of these steps. Through a series of workers, each performing a simplified single step, the production process could be made more efficient, increasing the overall productivity. The concept of scientific management have since spread to many other aspects of American business where workers have been organized along the principles of scientific management.

When one enters a modern supermarket the principles of scientific management can be seen in the many individual departments within the store. The many different products offered for sale are organized into individual departments such as the bakery, deli, meats and fish, dairy, produce, canned goods, and so on. Each department has a number of employees who have been trained specifically in ordering and stocking the shelves designated as that department's area of sales.

The workers assigned to each department specialize in one particular area of supermarket production and sales and generally do not perform the duties of workers from different departments. For instance, butchers will not perform bakery duties, and vice versa. While employees of the various departments are expected to have some general knowledge of the many duties performed within their department, each workers is generally assigned regular duties and usually does not perform other duties within the department.

One example could be the bakery department where one worker may be trained as a decorator of cakes while another may be trained to perform the actual baking duties. Each performs one aspect of the overall bakery department duties and these duties usually will not overlap. In this way each worker specializes in one duty that they can be trained to perform well.