Stopwatch industrialism

Fredrick Winslow Taylor was born in 1856 in Philladelphia. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy where he was at the top of his class. He passed the Harvard entrance exam, but couldn't go because the night studying that he did ruined his eyesight. Taylor learned a trade and worked for a while as a skilled laborer, and then left for the Midvale Steel Company, where he worked his way up from machinist to clerk.

At Midvale, Taylor introduced the concept of a time study. The goal of the time study is to see what time the workers were wasting, so that any inefficiencies could be improved upon. By doing this, Taylor made labor cheaper, as he was getting workers to produce more product in the same amount of time. The workers resented the prospect that their labor would be made cheaper because it meant that they would effectively be paid less per product. Because of this, laborers often resisted the changes that Taylor asked for in the workplace.

Taylor retains his relevance long after he dies in 1915. To the average industrial worker, Taylor signifies the beginning of the degradation of work. Taylor sought to separate mental and physical work, introducing the principles of scientific management. For the average Joe on the shop floor, it means that rather than one machinist making several choices and taking a product from start to finish, several machinists make minor cuts and adjustments over and over again.

While the effects of Taylorism are still felt today, it can be argued that they were the most relevant during World War 2. The degradation of labor, despite its adverse effects on the workingman's mindset, increased production so greatly that it allowed the US to outproduce all other belligerents during the war.


Sources:
britannica.com
economist.com
marxists.org
Labor and Monopoly Capital - Harry Braverman
The picture is from Wikipedia