The Impact of Taylorism and Fordism on the US Motor Vehicle Industry

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Scientific Management Intro : This paper takes a look at the ways in which the ideas of Fordism and Taylorism helped the success of the U.S motor vehicle industry. The motor vehicle industry has changed the fundamental ideas on the process of manufacturing and probably more expressively on how humans work together to create value. In my essay we will take a look at Frederick Taylors principles of scientific management and his contribution to manufacturing and the influence he has had. We will use Ford as the organization as Fordism I closely linked to Taylorism and has been majorly influenced by it. The U.S. motor vehicle industry emerged at the end of the 19th century as a craft production system with a labor force that included skilled workers who had knowledge about mechanical design and the materials they were working with. After World War I, Henry Ford invented the mass production system (now known as Fordism). In his system, the product, the production process, and the tasks that each particular worker performed were standardized. At somewhat the same time, Taylor came up with scientific management which divided tasks which required planning and control from standardized repetitive production tasks that require less qualifications. The mass production method inspired from Ford and Taylor lead to the success of the American motor vehicle companies. About Taylor and Scientific Management The major change came through the work of Fredrick Winslow Taylor and his theory of scientific management system. It was not that Taylor was unique or completely new; only time and motion study could be put in that category. The trend was already moving towards systematic management such as formal management methods or by cost ... ... middle of paper ... ...and Fordism that lead to the increasing productivity and decrease in skilled workers between the years 1919 and 1929. Taylorism and Fordism both help capitalists take control over the worker and a means of increasing production. Taylorism and Fordism lead to the rise of capitalism and the growth of the industrial unionism. Ford used Taylor’s scientific management principles and come up with the mass production and assembly line. This benefitted the motor vehicle industry highly. The effects of Taylorism and Fordism in the industrial workplace were strong and between the period of 1919-1929 the output of industries in the U.S doubled as the number of workers decreased. There was an increase in unskilled labour as the skill was removed and placed into machines. It lead to the discouragement of workers ability to bargain on the basis of control over the workplace.

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