Born at Germantown, Philadelphia on March 22, 1856, he graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Frederick Winslow Taylor is best known for having pioneered application of principles of Engineering to shop-floor management.

By devising scientifically accurate methods based on facts and proven research rather than on whimsical surmise, he was honoured with the title of Father of Scientific Management.

Taylor’s interests and beliefs in systems and procedures were so deeply entrenched that while yet a child he insisted his playmates participate in games as per the rules for balls and games he would devise.

The interest was to become an obsession as he took those baby steps in the industrial society of the day.

Unprecedented labour strife destined to alter the perspectives both of management and workers, lending socio-economic polity a visibly new meaning marked the concluding years of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.

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Gradually growing disenchantment with the Capitalist system propelled Taylor to assiduously experiment and prove to the warring segments of industry that higher productivity would ultimately mean higher profitability.

To achieve it the task would need to be broken down into its constituent components together with standardization both in design and equipment.

The productivity-profitability combo – that later was to have a rebirth as Return on Investment needed interlinking cost with accounting data with Feedback as the end-loop.

Opportunity for practical performance knocked when Taylor got exposed to work at industrial concerns, the big three being:

Bethlehem Steel Co
Cramp’s Shipbuilding Co
Midvale Steel Co