Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1133IR // #c1133Synthesis

"…the gain in time made through running the machine according to scientific principles ranged from two and one-half times the speed in the slowest instance to nine times the speed in the highest."

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

[Use when]

You assume long experience on a machine means the settings are already optimal.

[Why it matters]

The lathe had been run for ten to twelve years by a first-class mechanic. A man who had never seen the jobs, using slide rules built from years of metal-cutting experiments, set speeds and feeds that beat him on every part.

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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