Fordism Case

What is Fordism?

• Fordism is a theory, which was created by the capailist Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Fordism is where the capalist aims to increase productivity by standardising the output such as cars into a moving assembly line. This results in deskilling the workers, as they operated on smaller tasks.

• Insert Picture of moving assembly line

Principles of Fordism

There are three main

• Standardisation of the end product (this is where machines carry out must of the work. In the factory the machines controlled the pace of the workforce. As machines where used it meant that employees where deskilled as they no longer hand to carry out specialist skills to produce the product)

• Assembly lines (assembly lines are where one employee does one job over and over again as they contribute to the end product. For example within Ford there was a moving assembly line, so as the car moved slowly across the factory floor each employee would do a small task such as add the door, motor, windows seats etc.)

• Workers paid higher wages (higher wages allowed the employees to afford the products the were actually producing)

What is taylorism ?

Taylorism is also a theory, which was called after Fredrick Taylor in the 20th century within manufacturing industries. Taylorism is a theory of management, which arranges and analyses productivity. The main objective of taylorism would be to improve the economic efficiency and increase labour productivity within the business.

Principles of Taylorism

• Scientific task design

• Scientific selection