Q6) How relevant is the study of Scientific Management for an understanding of the

operation of modern manufacturing and service industries?

The study of Scientific Management is indeed very important and relevant for an
understanding of the modern manufacturing and service industries

- Introduction of Scientific Management

Scientific management arises from Taylor’s attempts to increase workforce
efficiency and productivity. Taylor believed that decisions and methods based
upon traditions and comradeship. (Eg. Irish employing Irish workers) should be
done away with. In the past, different groups of workers decide their output and
possess superior knowledge of their job over their supervisors. Rather, precise
procedures and management should be introduced so as to control the quality,
workmanship and work rate of the workers.

- Characteristics of Scientific Management

Reward for exceeding required output, penalty for failure to meet required output
Standard procedures for each task
Jobs are fragmented into simpler tasks
Workers are deskilled
There is a structured hierarchy and organization
Promotion and selection is based on competence, seniority and training
Managers have to follow strict rules and procedures
Work is normally repetitive and predictable

- How has modern manufacturing industries been influenced by Scientific

Management
Modern manufacturing industries such as wafer fabs, car assembly plants,
electronics manufacturing factories, garment factories and even canned drink
factories all exhibit substantial traces of the effects of scientific management.

- Fordism
When Henry Ford introduced the assembly line, he took Taylorism a step further
and revolutionized the way modern manufacturing industries operate. Most of the
abovementioned industries all possess similar traits such as fragmenting
complicated tasks into dozens of simpler ones. They are so simple that any new
employee would probably take less than a day to perform. In these industries they
have strict codified organizational structures and procedures for tasks. Employees
usually has little discretion and power in the way they want the tasks to be
performed or decisions to be made. In factories, experienced employees will have
a chance to rise to the position of a team leader or supervisor. A particularly
glaring legacy of scientific management is the physical existence of the assembly
line where workers and machines “assembled” a product from scratch to finish in
a sequential pattern.
- How has modern service industries been influenced by Scientific Management
Examples of modern service industries include fast food restaurants
(McDonald’s), banks and hotels.

- Whenever you enter into a fast food restaurant, the counter staff greeting you
would have memorized a set of script detailing the exact words to use from the
moment you enter the restaurant to the moment you exit the restaurant. Even
preparing the French fries would have strict timelines and procedures. This is
quite similar in hotels although the hotels normally do not control the employees
as strictly as the fast food restaurants. In hotels, employees are taught the proper
words to use when speaking to guests and the proper etiquette. Similarly in banks,
in order to assure the customer that the bank is reliable, standard procedures are
lined up to ensure that money and funds are properly processed, transferred or
stored. Lower level employees have to follow such procedures strictly and usually
perform a few simple tasks.

- Conclusion
Scientific management has influenced and affected most manufacturing and
service industries in many ways or the other. Taylorist methods and practices are
especially evident in the manufacturing industries when the emphasis is very much on
production and the standard of quality. Although not as obvious as in the service
industries, scientific management has nonetheless influenced the procedures and
operations of the service industries. However, much as the service industries have
been shaped by scientific management, employees in such industries have more
freedom and liberty to perform tasks as well as to influence management decisions as
compared to their counterparts in the manufacturing industries. Part of the reason is
because service personnel tend to face the customer more than those in the
manufacturing industries. Therefore service staff especially those in the hotel industry
might go out of their boundaries to please their customers. The organization they are
working for will usually understand such behaviour and will tend to encourage it
instead of curbing it. In conclusion, scientific management dictated the way
manufacturing and service industries operate but it held more sway over the
development of the manufacturing industry in modern history.