Industrial management, in its most comprehensive meaning, refers to the systematic management of all aspects of the factory, and

more specifically, to early studies of production efficiency known as scientific management. The term came into use in the United States around the turn of the twentieth century, when the Industrial Revolution dramatically shifted methods of generating output from craftsmanship to mass production and automation. Massive centralized production facilities, like those of the Ford Motor Company, Bethlehem Steel, and Western Electric, brought with them the unprecedented need to understand work that had become increasingly complex. To bring some measure of control and discipline to the industrial behemoths, such luminaries as Frederick Taylor, Henry Ford, and Frank and Lillian Gilbreth developed "scientific" methods of observation in factories. The term "scientific" brought a patina of respectability to a field of study, which by its very nature contained some measure of dehumanization with regards to work methods. Frederick Taylor sought the "one best way to manage" by systematically recording the time to perform work elements that comprised a laborer's repetitive movements, while the Gilbreths developed "time and motion" studies. Henry Ford is credited with institutionalizing division of labor in factories with his development of the assembly line, an innovation that dramatically reduced the time it took to produce an automobile. Little attention was paid to the motivational content of work until the accidental discovery of the importance of human relations by the Hawthorne studies from 1927 to 1932, research supervised by Elton Mayo. While conducting productivity studies at Western Electric, Mayo demonstrated that workers' efficiency depended on a wide range of relations within groups as well as on compensation. This finding led to an eventual split in the study of industrial management, with one branch emphasizing an understanding of organization theory and behavior and the other emphasizing the mechanics of production, also known as operations. While science continued to provide the basis for academic studies of both branches, the practice of management was increasingly recognized as a complex set of knowledge and skills. Later, increased specialization of management talents led to the dissipation of comprehensive studies in industrial management, with more attention paid to specialties like financial management, human resources management, and operations management. Following World War II, many of the dehumanizing aspects of factory life were a leading concern of both union movements and studies to improve quality of work life. Work design and sociotechnical approaches to work became the focus of industrial management. By the 1960s, however, the U.S. economy had shifted to a service economy, with more than half of the labor in the country employed in services. This shift was to be followed by the information revolution and extraordinarily high rates of global competitiveness, changes that had dramatic impacts on work content. The term "industrial management" became increasingly irrelevant as the nature and content of work shifted to computerization and other spheres of the economy. In the early twenty-first century, the segment of management that seeks improvements in efficiency and productivity is known as service and operations management. Its most recent developments include integrated methods of management that contain elements of programmable technology, quality improvement, just-in-time delivery, lean production, and supply chain management.
Bibliography

Boone, Louis E., and Donald D. Bowen, eds. The Great Writings in Management and Organizational Behavior. Tulsa, Okla.: PPC, 1980. Dertouzos, Michael L., et al. Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge. New York: Harper Perennial, 1990. Lacey, Robert. Ford: The Men and the Machine. Boston: Little, Brown, 1986. Russell, Roberta S., and Bernard W. Taylor III. Operations Management. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2000. Zuboff, Shoshana. In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power. New York: Basic Books, 1988.

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Columbia Encyclopedia: Top Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Columbia Encyclopedia industrial management, term applied to highly organized modern methods of carrying on industrial, especially manufacturing, operations. The Rise of Factories Before the Industrial Revolution people worked with hand tools, manufacturing articles in their own homes or in small shops. In the third quarter of the 18th cent. steam power was applied to machinery, and people and machines were brought together under one roof in factories, where the manufacturing process could be supervised. This was the beginning of shop management. In the next hundred years factories grew rapidly in size, in degree of mechanization, and in complexity of operation. The growth, however, was accompanied by much waste and inefficiency. In the United States many engineers, spurred by the increased competition of the post-Civil War era, began to seek ways of improving plant efficiency. The Development of Industrial Management Studies of Worker Performance The first sustained effort in the direction of improved efficiency was made by Frederick Winslow Taylor, an assistant foreman in the Midvale Steel Company, who in the 1880s undertook a series of studies to determine whether workers used unnecessary motions and hence too much time in performing operations at a machine. Each operation required to turn out an article or part was analyzed and studied minutely, and superfluous motions were eliminated. Records were kept of the performance of workers and standards were adopted for each operation. The early studies resulted in a faster pace of work and the introduction of rest periods. Management of the Machine Industrial management also involves studying the performance of machines as well as people. Specialists are employed to keep machines in good working condition and to ensure the quality of their production. The flow of materials through the plant is supervised to ensure that neither workers nor machines are idle. Constant inspection is made to keep output up to standard. Charts are used for recording the accomplishment of both workers and machines and for comparing them with established standards. Careful accounts are kept of the cost of

each operation. When a new article is to be manufactured it is given a design that will make it suitable for machine production, and each step in its manufacture is planned, including the machines and materials to be used. Other Aspects of Management The principles of scientific management have been gradually extended to every department of industry, including office work, financing, and marketing. Soon after 1910 American firms established the first personnel departments, and eventually some of the larger companies took the lead in creating environments conducive to worker efficiency. Safety devices, better sanitation, plant cafeterias, and facilities for rest and recreation were provided, thus adding to the welfare of employees and enhancing morale. Many such improvements were made at the insistence of employee groups, especially labor unions. Over the years, workers and their unions also sought and often won higher wages and increased benefits, including group health and life insurance and liberal retirement pensions. During the 1980s and 1990s, however, cutbacks and downsizing in many American businesses substantially reduced many of these benefits. Some corporations permit employees to buy stock; others make provision for employee representation on the board of directors or on the shop grievance committee. Many corporations provide special opportunities for training and promotion for workers who desire advancement, and some have made efforts to solve such difficult problems as job security and a guaranteed annual wage. Modern Trends Modern technological devices, particularly in the areas of computers, electronics, thermodynamics, and mechanics, have made automatic and semiautomatic machines a reality. The development of such automation is bringing about a second industrial revolution and is causing vast changes in commerce as well as the way work is organized. Such technological changes and the need to improve productivity and quality of products in traditional factory systems also changed industrial management practices. In the 1960s Swedish automobile companies discovered that they could improve productivity with a system of group assembly. In a contrast to older manufacturing techniques where a worker was responsible for assembling only one part of the car, group assembly gave a group of workers the responsibility for assembling an entire car. The system was also applied in Japan, where managers developed a number of other innovative systems to lower costs and improve the quality of products. One Japanese innovation, known as quality circles, allowed workers to offer management suggestions on how to make production more efficient and to solve problems. Workers were also given the right to stop the assembly line if something went wrong, a sharp departure from U.S. factories. By carefully controlling the manufacturing process, Japanese managers were able to cut waste, improve productivity, and reduce inventory, thus significantly reducing costs and improving quality. By the early 1980s, Japanese companies, which had once been criticized for producing for producing low-quality goods, had established a reputation for efficiently producing high-quality, high-tech products. In the 1980s and early 90s many U.S. companies looked to increase their competitiveness by adapting Japanese methods for improving manufacturing quality.

Bibliography See study of Taylor by R. Kanigel (1997). Also see G. Friedmann, Industrial Society: The Emergence of the Human Problems of Automation (1955); S. Haber, Efficiency and Uplift: Scientific Management in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920 (1964); J. Barbash, The Elements of Industrial Relations (1984); D. DelMar, Operations and Industrial Management (1985).

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Industrial Management can be defined as the effective and efficient running of an industry using its human and non-human resources in order to achieve its set goals and objectives. It can also be defined as the effective and efficient utilization of organizational resources to achieve an industry set goals.

SCOPE OF INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT As far as the scope of industrial management is concerned it is applicable in all segments of industry as well as in daily life. As in daily life, we plan our activities; we coordinate available resources and control our activities to achieve certain goals in the most economic way. In the same way any organization must follow the Principles of Management for its survival and growth and to be economically viable. These management principles are applicable to all activities in industry also. Reading and learning Industrial Management will enable one to be capable of solving the problems of the organization, may be in a Production Shop, Hospital, Departmental shop, an Educational Institution or even a coffee shop. The problems a manager faces in various organizations are more or less similar to that of Production department but smaller in magnitude. Hence the knowledge of Industrial Management will help anybody managing business activities, tackle the problems encountered. For example: The Industrial Management consists of Planning in various segments of industry in all the departments, e.g. Production, Inspection & quality, Procurement, Store management, management of activities in assembly line etc. In production department the management includes selection of materials, planning of processes, Routing, Scheduling and controlling the activities etc., Take the example of an Educational

Institution. Here too, selection of raw materials i.e. students & faculty, Planning of the Courses, imparting instructions to the students and conduct of the examination, smooth flow of transfer of knowledge and information. The education institution has to continue the process of evaluation and upgradation, so that it is able to impart more relevant and meaningful knowledge to its product i.e. students trained by the institute. Principles of management are helpful in achieving these objectives most efficiently and economically. Similarly, these principles are equally applicable to the service providing organizations so that these are able to provide best of services at minimal cost, most effectively and efficiently. Scope of Industrial Management encompasses all industrial and human activities. Rate This Answer

'Industrial management' means the branch of engineering that deals with the creation and management of systems that integrate people and materials and energy in productive ways

Industrial Management can be defined as the effective and efficient running of an industry using its human and non-human resources in order to achieve its set goals and objectives. It can also be defined as the effective and efficient utilization of organizational resources to achieve an industry set goals