SUCCESSFUL STANDARDIZATION DEMANDS COMPLETE CONFORMITY TO
STANDARDS.--The laws for establishment of standards; the laws of
achieving them; the laws for preventing deviations from those paths
that will permit of their achievement; the dependent sequences
absolutely necessary to perform the complete whole; these have been
worked out and given to the world by Dr. Taylor, who recognized, as
James has said, page 157, that, "a permanently existing 'Idea' which
makes its appearance before the footlights of consciousness at
periodic intervals, is as mythological an entity as the Jack of
Spades." The entire organization from the highest to the lowest must
conform to these standards. It is out of the question to permit the
deviations resulting from individual initiative. Individual
initiative is quite as objectionable in obtaining the best
results,--that is, high wages and low production cost,--as service
would be on a railroad if each locomotive engineer were his own
train despatcher, determining at what time and to what place he
would go.
INITIATIVE PROVIDED FOR.--There is a distinct place for
initiative in Scientific Management, but that place is not outside
of the planning department, until the planning department's method
has been proved to be fully understood by achieving it. The
standards must be made by the men to whom this work is assigned, and
they must be followed absolutely by the worker. He is willing to
follow them, under Scientific Management, because he realizes that a
place for his suggestions is supplied, and that, if his suggestions
are accepted, they will be incorporated into the new standards which
must then be followed by all thereafter.
STANDARDIZATION APPLIES TO THE WORK OF ALL.--It is important to
note that standardizing is applied to the work of all. This, if
understood by all, will do away with all question of discrimination
or the lack of a "square deal." It will make the worker feel ready
to follow his standard exactly, just as he knows the manager is
following his. So, also, the worker should be made to realize that
the very fact that there is a standardization means, under
Scientific Management, that that applies to every man, and that
there is no discrimination against him in any possible way.
STANDARDIZATION CONSERVES AND DEVELOPS INDIVIDUALITY.--
Standardization conserves individual capacity by doing away with the
wasteful process of trial and error of the individual workman. It
develops individuality by allowing the worker to concentrate his
initiative upon work that has not before been done, and by providing
incentive and reward for inventions.
WASTE ELIMINATED IS ELIMINATED PERMANENTLY.--Scientific
Management not only eliminates waste, but provides that waste shall
be eliminated for all time in the future.
The standard once written down, there can be no slipping back
into the old methods based upon opinions of the facts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account