ABSTRACT
There is another feature of scientific management which is brought out forcefully in several places in this book. There seems to be an impression, not very well defined but still quite prevalent, that it is an easy matter for a specialist in such work to tell what should be done; that all he has to do is to look at the machinery, count the men, examine the product and then try to collect his fee. Now thisis all wrong and one of the best things about Mr. Taylor's book is the insight given into the long study and tedious experiment which are sometimes needed to effect a satisfactory improvement of some conditions. Perhaps the best illustration of this is the account of the different steps taken to develop high speed metal cutting, a work requiring 26 years and resulting in the development of special slide-rules which enable a mechanic to apply in less than half a minute the information which it took this long period to collect and arrange in a form for ready use.
