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The beginning of modern
Management
 The development of agricultural methods, of trade esp. with America,
technical advances like the spinning jenny and the
steam engine, populations expanding through better
hygiene and diet plus the new "protestant working
ethics" let in the 17./18. c. to the Industrial Revolution. With it
came the need to improve work methods, quality, and productivity.
Adam Smith advocated specialization to support the development of skills,
the saving of time and the possibility of using specialized tools.
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Eli Whitney in the first years of the 19th c. produced muskets by means of
using interchangeable parts. Whitney also developed and used techniques such as cost accounting and quality
control.
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In 1832, Charles Babbage, the main inventor of the computer, examined
the division of labor in his book "On the Economy of Machinery and Manufacturers". Babbage
proposed, as an advantage of the division of labor, that the amount of skill
needed to undertake a specialized task was only the skill necessary to complete
that task, so employers need only to pay for the
amount of skill necessary to complete each individual task. He advocated
breaking down jobs into elements and costing each element. In this way,
potential savings from investments in training, process and methods could be
quantified.
Contact: wolfgang.arlt@fh-stralsund.de
Office: 1/132, Tel. (03831) 45 6961
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