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| Product Orientation of the 19th Century American quality practices in the 1800s were shaped by several different production methods: * Craftsmanship * The factory system * The Taylor system Craftsmanship In the early 19th century, the approach to manufacturing in the United States tended to follow the craftsmanship model used in the European countries. In this model, young boys learned a skilled trade from a master while serving as his apprentice. Since most craftsmen sold their goods locally, each had a large personal stake in meeting customers’ needs for quality. If quality needs weren’t met, the craftsman ran the risk of losing customers not easily replaced. Therefore, masters maintained a form of quality control by inspecting goods before sale. The factory system The factory system, a product of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, subdivided the craftsmen’s trades into multiple specialized tasks. This forced the craftsmen to become factory workers and the shop owners to become production supervisors, marking an initial decline in employees’ sense of power and autonomy in the workplace. Quality in the factory system was ensured through skilled laborers and supplemented by audits and/or inspections. Large production departments employed full-time inspectors who produced quality reports for their supervisors. Defective products were either reworked or scrapped. The Taylor system Late in the 19th century, the United States broke from European tradition and adopted a new management approach developed by Frederick W. Taylor. Taylor’s goal was to increase productivity without increasing the number of skilled craftsmen. He achieved this by assigning factory planning to specialized engineers and using displaced workers and supervisors to execute the engineers’ plans. Taylor’s new approach led to remarkable rises in productivity, but it had significant drawbacks. Workers were once again stripped of their dwindling power, and the new emphasis on productivity had a negative effect on quality. To remedy the quality decline, factory managers created inspection departments to keep defective products from reaching customers. If defective product did reach the customer, it was more common for upper managers to ask the inspector, “Why did we let this get out?” than to ask the production manager, “Why did we make it this way to begin with?” |
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