Late 19th century - early 20th

Rationalizing work organization in the United States

Taylorism (named after its inventor, Fre­d­erick Taylor, an American engineer) started to develop in the 1880s. Taylor advocated a sci­entific organ­iz­ation of work, involving new pro­duction pro­cesses (task sequencing), a new pay system (shift from piecework wage to hourly wage) and, finally, higher pro­ductivity. These ideas were first met with great success in the steel industry. Henry Ford adapted this system to the auto­motive industry. From 1913, pro­duction of the Ford Model T (launched in 1908) was based on three main ele­ments: stand­ard­iz­ation, the pro­duction line and the con­veyor belt.