Scientific Management – From Loading 12.5 Tons of Pig Iron a Day to 54

Around the beginning of the twentieth century, a new movement called Scientific Management growing. In short, it put science into our work using more systematic approaches such as time and motion studies. It was a critical step as a building block for what we know as Lean today.

Before We Called It Lean: A History

About a month ago, a friend asked us to prepare a video for a class the talked about the history of Lean using our book, The Progressive Machine as a reference. We accomplished that goal, but in the spirit of continuous improvement, there were several things we thought we could do better. Also, in my opinion, Lean is something that is meant to benefit all, so we wanted to make a free education video for the public. We hope it inspires. The film will be made available on YouTube (for free viewing) and will be called “Before We Called It Lean: A History”.

In preparing the film, we have secured the rights to some footage of various Scientific Management initiatives.

The Pig Iron Experiment: From loading 12.5 tons a day to 54

In 1899 pig iron prices rose sharply and Frederick Taylor used this opportunity to study worker fatigue in loading pig iron (each pig weighed about 92 pounds). At first, the average loading per worker was about 12.5 tons per day.

Frederick Taylor assigned James Gillespie and Hartley C. Wolle to study the loading of pig iron.

Ten of the best workers were sought out and asked to work at maximum speed during day one. Incredibly, they loaded about 75 tons each, but they were exhausted.

Adjustments were made to deduct about 40 percent of the time for rest and delays with rest periods properly spaced out. They created a new standard of 45 tons per day, increasing pay from $1.15 to about $1.69 per day.

It is noteworthy that the allowance of 40 percent of time for rest and delays was arbitrary as well as determining the piece rate. This video of moving pig iron shows a slightly different result (54 tons for $1.85 per day).

Taylor referenced this initiative often in both writings and talks to persuade others that a systematic approach could be applied to basic work processes (click the image below to see the video).

Upcoming Videos on Scientific Management

We have other videos that will soon be featured based on the upcoming production. For example, why are letters placed on a keyboard in their current pattern? What impact did scientific management have on surgery?

Not only will there be videos on Scientific Management, there will also be videos on other innovations such as Ford’s assembly line. We also have some entertaining footage about what it was like to get groceries before we had self-service grocery stores. There will also be videos in which we will share with you documents from World War II.

We hope you enjoy what we put together.

The Progressive Machine: Before We Called It Lean

Though this experiment is not specifically noted in our book, it is a critical argument for the value of scientific management. This, along with the other innovations that were used to develop the Toyota Production System, and thus became incorporated into Lean, is a fascinating tale.

Show your support

You can show your support by purchasing a copy of The Progressive Machine: Before We Called it Lean. You can order your copy on this website using this link.