Efficiency movement facts for kids
The efficiency movement was a big idea that started in the early 1900s, especially in the United States and Britain. It was all about finding and getting rid of waste in everything – from factories and businesses to how people lived their daily lives. The goal was to find the "best way" to do things, making everything work better and grow faster.
This idea is often called Taylorism, named after one of its early supporters.
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Making Things Better in the United States
The efficiency movement was a huge part of the Progressive Era in the United States, from about 1890 to 1932. People who believed in it thought that many parts of the economy, society, and government were wasting a lot of time and resources. They believed that if experts found these problems, they could fix them.
This led to strong support for:
- Building more research universities.
- Creating schools for business and engineering.
- Setting up agencies to study how cities could run better.
- Improving hospitals, medical schools, and even farming methods.
Two famous leaders were engineers:
- Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856–1915): He used a stopwatch to find even the tiniest ways things were inefficient.
- Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr. (1868–1924): He famously said there was always "one best way" to solve a problem.
Other leaders like Herbert Croly, Charles R. van Hise, and Richard Ely wanted to make government work better. They pushed for training experts in public service, similar to what was done in Germany. Business schools also started programs focused on efficiency.
Cities and States Get Efficient
Many cities created "efficiency bureaus" to find waste and use the best methods. For example, Chicago had an Efficiency Division from 1910 to 1916. This group studied how well city employees were performing. Massachusetts also set up a "Commission on Economy and Efficiency" in 1912, which made many suggestions.
Rich People Help Out
Important philanthropists, like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, strongly supported the efficiency movement. Rockefeller believed in supporting efficient projects. He once said that helping a school that wasn't efficient was a waste of money. He thought that if money had been spent wisely, the country could have had a much better education system.
Saving Natural Resources
The conservation movement, which focused on protecting natural resources, also became very important during the Progressive Era. Historian Samuel P. Hays said that this movement was based on the "gospel of efficiency." This meant using natural resources wisely, not wasting them.
The Massachusetts Commission on Economy and Efficiency said in 1912 that protecting animals and nature was important for future generations. They believed it was a "wise economy" to prevent valuable animals from disappearing.
President Theodore Roosevelt was a major leader in conservation. He made it a national priority, saying it was important to stop wasting natural resources. He worked closely with his main advisor, Gifford Pinchot. Roosevelt is seen as the first "conservation President."
In 1908, Roosevelt held a meeting called the Conference of Governors at the White House. It focused on natural resources and how to use them most efficiently. Roosevelt's opening speech was titled "Conservation as a National Duty."
However, not everyone agreed on how to conserve. Environmentalist John Muir believed nature was sacred and humans should just admire it, not develop it. He worked through the Sierra Club to protect water and forests from commercial use. While Muir wanted nature preserved for its beauty, Roosevelt agreed with Pinchot's idea: to make forests produce the most useful things for people and trees, generation after generation.
National Leaders
In U.S. national politics, Herbert Hoover was a key figure. He was an engineer who believed that non-political experts could solve big national problems, like ending poverty.
After 1929, when the Great Depression hit, many people blamed Hoover. This made the efficiency movement less popular for a while.
Fighting Big Business
Boston lawyer Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) added a new idea to the efficiency movement. He argued that very large businesses were not always efficient. He believed they could harm smaller businesses, customers, and even their own workers.
Brandeis said, "Efficiency means greater production with less effort and at less cost, through the elimination of unnecessary waste, human and material." He also argued that railroads should become more efficient by cutting their own costs instead of raising prices for customers.
The Bedaux System
The Bedaux system was a method developed by Charles Bedaux (1886–1944), who was a management consultant. It built on the ideas of earlier thinkers like F. W. Taylor.
What made the Bedaux system special was the Bedaux Unit or B. This was a way to measure all kinds of manual work.
The Bedaux System was very popular in the United States in the 1920s and in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, especially in Britain. Many large companies, like Swift's, Eastman Kodak, DuPont, and General Electric, used it.
Later Ideas
Later movements were also inspired by the efficiency movement and Taylorism. For example, the Technocracy movement in the 1930s believed that technical experts should run society.
More recently, the idea of lean manufacturing (or "lean") became popular around 1990. This business idea says that any use of resources that doesn't create value for the customer is wasteful and should be removed. Today, "lean" is used for many goals, not just cutting costs.
Efficiency in Britain
In Britain, the idea of efficiency in engineering was developed in the mid-1700s by John Smeaton. He studied water wheels and steam engines. Later, in the late 1800s, there was a lot of talk about making the British Empire's administration and economy more efficient.
The idea of National Efficiency was about getting rid of old habits and ways of doing things that made Britain less competitive, especially compared to Germany. In the early 1900s, "National Efficiency" became a strong demand. Many important people from different political groups supported it. They believed that waste was a mistake that could no longer be allowed.
This movement happened in two waves. The first wave (1899–1905) was made urgent by the problems and failures in the Second Boer War (1899–1902). A magazine reported in 1902 that everyone wanted "efficiency in all departments of society." The main ideas were about making things more technical and improving management. The growing threat from Germany, which was seen as very efficient, made this even more urgent after 1902.
Politically, National Efficiency brought together modern thinkers from different parties. Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George were important new leaders. Their influence led to new laws that helped create Britain's welfare state, which provides social support for citizens.
The Royal Navy also became much more modern. A famous example was the introduction of the Dreadnought battleship in 1906, which completely changed naval warfare.
Efficiency in Germany
In Germany, the efficiency movement was called "rationalization." It was a powerful force before 1933. Germans looked at American models, especially Fordism, which focused on mass production. The Bedaux system was also used in the rubber industry, even though some workers didn't like it. Companies like Continental AG used it and became very successful. However, most German businesses preferred their own REFA system, which focused on making working conditions, tools, and machines standard.
"Rationalization" meant higher productivity and greater efficiency. It promised that science would bring wealth. It was applied to factories, businesses, and even public administration. Many different groups supported it, including business owners, engineers, educators, and politicians. It changed not only machines and factories but also the lives of many Germans.
Efficiency in the Soviet Union
Ideas about Scientific Management were very popular in the Soviet Union. One of the main thinkers was Alexei Gastev. He founded the Central Institute of Labour (TsIT) in 1921 with support from Vladimir Lenin. This institute was a major center for "socialist Taylorism."
Gastev was fascinated by Taylorism and Fordism. He led a popular movement for the "scientific organization of labor." Some experts even see Gastev's ideas as an early form of cybernetics, which is the study of control and communication in machines and living beings.
Efficiency in Japan
After World War II, W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993) brought the efficiency movement to Japan. He taught top managers how to improve product design, quality, testing, and sales, especially using statistical methods.
Deming later brought his methods back to the U.S. in the form of quality control called continuous improvement process. This idea is about always looking for ways to make things better.
See also
In Spanish: Movimiento de eficiencia para niños
