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Frederick W. Taylor

Born in 1856 Frederick Taylor was an American mechanical engineer commonly referred as the father of scientific management, Taylor’s primary goal was to increase worker productivity by scientifically designing jobs. One of his famous studies was done at Bethlehem Steel Company. Taylor analyzed and came up with the best one way that work should be done. (Certo, 2006)
Taylor's 4 Principles of Scientific Management
1. Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks.
2. Scientifically select, train, and develop each worker rather than passively leaving them to train themselves.
3. Cooperate with the workers to ensure that the scientifically developed methods are being followed.
4. Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers apply scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks. (NetMBA,2002- 2006)

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth

The Gilbreth couple was an American couple during the late 1800’s and early 1900 that were focused on the idea reducing each job to the most basic movements possible, or as they call it, motion study. The Gilbreth couple is well known for their study on improving bricklaying techniques, where they noticed that bricklayers could noticeably improve their output by focusing on single motions. Lillian Gilbreth was later on recognized for her studies on helping and creating a handicapped friendly work environment. (Certo, 2006)

Henry L. Gantt

"The essential difference between the best system of today and those of the past are the manner in which tasks are scheduled and the manner on which their performance is rewarded." (Certo, 2006)

Henry Gantt was another major contributor to the concept of scientific management, he focused on the more human side of how to increase productivity, mainly...