Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1119IR // #c1119Synthesis

"…it would be physically impossible for him to work at his machine and at a desk at the same time." "…under scientific management fully one-half of the problem is 'up to the management.'"

— In our words · Source: The Principles of Scientific Management (Frederick Winslow Taylor)

[Use when]

Your best makers are also doing all the scheduling and tooling decisions in their heads.

[Why it matters]

Under the old system the worker did the planning in his head while running the machine. Taylor moves it to a planning room and says the work splits better when "one type of man is needed to plan ahead and an entirely different type to execute the work."

Filed under situations:When you’re building the thing, not just planning it

More from The Principles of Scientific Management

#c1113"The greater part of the systematic soldiering, however, is done by the men with the deliberate object of keeping their employers ignorant…Your team's estimates never get shorter no matter how familiar the work becomes. #c1114"…after a workman has had the price per piece of the work he is doing lowered two or three times as a result of his having worked harder…You are tempted to raise a quota because someone beat it. #c1115"…since they were paid by the hour, the faster they went the less money they got, and finally telling him that if he went too fast the…You are setting up pay for work where you can't easily see the pace.

Same situation, different book

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