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The Du Pont Experiments in Scientific Management: Efficiency and Safety, 1911–1919

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Donald R. Stabile
Donald R. Stabile
Affiliation:
Donald R. Stabile is associate professor of economics atSt. Mary's College of Maryland.
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Abstract

In this article, Professor Stabile examines the experimentation with Frederick Taylor's principles of scientific management by managers at the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company. Despite their initial interest in efficiency, those managers quickly recognized that there was a direct relationship between efficiency and safety, an issue Taylor had not considered. When it was alleged that the efficiency methods had been a factor in two explosions, the emphasis in the company shifted to a more systematic approach to promoting safety. As a consequence, the company was able to manage a full-scale expansion of its production during the First World War with little disruption resulting from safety problems.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1987 , pp. 365 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1987

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References

1 Chandler, Alfred D. Jr., Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of American Industrial Enterprise (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), 52–113Google Scholar; Chandler, Alfred D. Jr., and Salsbury, Stephen, Pierre du Pont and the Making of the Modern Corporation (New York, 1971)Google Scholar. See also, Wren, Daniel A., The Evolution of Management Thought (New York, 1972), 190–91Google Scholar.

2 Taylor, Frederick W., The Principles of Scientific Management (New York, 1919), 22Google Scholar, 123, and 131: Nelson, Daniel, Managers and Workers: Origins of the New Factory System in the United States, 1880–1920 (Madison, Wis., 1975), 75Google Scholar.

3 Locke, Edwin A., “The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: An Evaluation,” Academy of Management Review 7 (1982) 1:14CrossRefGoogle Scholar: Nelson, Daniel, “Scientific Management, Systematic Management, and Labor, 1880–1915.” Business History Review 48 (Winter 1974): 479–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Nelson, Daniel, Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management (Madison, Wis., 1980)Google Scholar.

4 Noble, David, America By Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism (New York, 1977), 263Google Scholar: Stabile, Donald, Prophets of Order: The Rise of the New Class. Technocracy and Socialism in America (Boston, 1984), 29–38Google Scholar; Nelson, “Scientific Management,” 485.

5 Chandler, Strategy and Structure, and Chandler and Salsbury, Pierre du Pont, Johnson, H. Thomas, “Management Accounting in an Early Integrated Industrial: E.I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company, 1903-1912,” Business History Review 49 (Summer 1975): 184–204CrossRefGoogle Scholar: Ernest Dale and Charles Meloy, “Hamilton MacFarland Barksdale and the Du Pont Contributions to Systematic Management,” ibid. 34 (Summer 1962): 131–32, 139, and 144.

6 Chandler and Salsbury, Pierre du Pont, 32, 129.

7 For discussion of this tendency see Locke, “Ideas of Taylor,” 19.

8 Haber, Samuel, Efficiency and Uplift. Scientific Management in the Progressive Era (Chicago, 1964), ixGoogle Scholar.

9 In March 1911, The American Magazine carried an editorial and feature article on Taylor as well as a portion of Taylor's book. The Principles of Scientific Management. Barksdale to Frederick W. Taylor, 28 March 1911, Records of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Co. [hereafter, Du Pont Co. Records], series II, part 2, acc. 518, box 1005. All records pertaining to the Du Pont company used in this article are located at the Hagley Museum and Library (formerly the Eleutherian Mills Historical Library), Greenville, Del.; citations use the library's system of filing.

10 Reese to Dr. A.M. Carey and Dr. Fin Sparre, 17 Nov. 1911, Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, #205, file XES-4.

11 Letter to Reese initialed F. S. [Fin Sparre], 5 Dec. 1911, ibid.

12 Letter from F. C. Evans to Charles H. Herrick, secretary, MIT Class of 1886, 1 April 1943, attached to letter from Evans to Mrs. Edward M. Harrington, 1 April 1943, ibid., acc. 1078 #5.

13 H. G. Haskell, “Opening Address,” Thirty-Third Superintendents' Meeting of the HEOD. 20 April 1911. p. 3, Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, acc. 1305, no. 230, vol. 580.

14 F. C. Evans to Charles H. Herrick. 1 April 1943; Haskell, “Opening Address,” 3.

15 Haskell. “Opening Address,” 1–2.

16 “Opening Address,” Thirty-Fourth Superintendents' Meeting of the HEOD, 18 April, 1912, pp. 1–3, Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, acc. 1305, no. 231, vol. 584.

17 Labor Efficiency Division, “Scientific Management as Applied to High Explosives Works,” Program No. 7, HEOD Superintendents' Meeting No. 34, 18–24 April 1912, p. 1, Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, acc. 1305, no. 231, vol. 584.

18 Ibid., 2–4.

19 Ibid., 5–6.

20 Ibid., 7.

21 Ibid., 8–10.

22 Typed Manuscript of Discussion of Program No. 7, Labor Efficiency Division, pp. 1, 13, LMSS gr. 10, file 418, box 15, #34.

23 Discussion, Program No. 16, 23 April 1913, p. 4, Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, acc. 500. box 588.

24 Ibid., 14–15.

25 Efficiency Division, “Efficiency As Applied to High Explosives Works,” HEOD Superintendents' Meeting No. 35, Program No. 16, pp. 2, 19.

26 Ibid., 14.

27 Bulletin No. HEOD-311. 29 May 1912, from Haskell, p. 5, Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, acc. 552, box 553, book 2.

28 Bulletin HEOD-311; Circular Letter, 28 Feb. 1913, Du Pont Co. Records, series 2, part 2, acc. 552, box 551, book 5; file LE-21—Letter Writing, 22 Dec. 1913, Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, acc. 518, box 1005.

29 “Annual Report of Efficiency Division—1914,” To Irenée du Pont from Haskell, 16 Feb. 1915, acc. 228, box 104, I.D. 100; Bulletin No. HEOD-552, from Haskell, 27 Jan. 1915, Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, box 554, book 4.

30 Discussion, Program No. 16, 13–14.

31 Efficiency Division, “Efficiency Division,” HEOD Superintendents' Meeting no. 36, 12 May 1914, pp. 13–14, Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, acc. 1305, no. 233, vol. 592.

32 Discussion of “Efficiency,” 5–7, ibid.

33 Assheton, Ralph, History of Explosions (Wilmington, Del., 1930), 75–76Google Scholar; The New York Times, 9 Dec. 1913, 20:2, gave the bare details of the explosion as did the Wilmington Journal Every Evening, 9 Dec. 1913, 2, and the Philadelphia Public Ledger, 9 Dec. 1913, 9.

34 Philadelphia Public Ledger, 10 Dec. 1913. 1.

35 “Things Talked About,” [a regular column], Gloucester County (N.J.) Democrat. 11, 18 Dec. 1913, 1.

36 “Paulsboro in Gloom Over Explosion,” Woodbury (N.J.) Daily Times, 9 Dec. 1913, 1; Discussion of “Efficiency.”

37 “Explosion in Building #539 “C” Line Gelatin Mixing House, Repauno—Dec. 8. 1913,” Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, acc. 1078, #4.

38 Ibid.

39 W. G. Hudson to H. F. Brown, 5 April 1911 and 31 May 1911. Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, Box 1002.

40 H. G. Haskell to Irenée du Pont, 4 May 1911, and Circular Letter HEOD-747 from Haskell, 9 May 1911. ibid.

41 “Development of Accident Prevention Work in E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company,” typed manuscript dated 16 September 1932, Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 2, box 8.

42 Ramsay to Barksdale, 15 Nov. 1911; Bulletin HEOD-286, from H. G. Haskell, 14 Feb. 1912; and Ramsay to Barksdale, 19 July 1912; all from Du Pont Co. Records, series II. part 2, box 1002.

43 “Annual Report of Safety Commissions,” 20 Feb. 1914, ibid.

44 “Compilation of Accident Statistics,” 23 Jan.1914, ibid.; “Accidents and Injuries,” HEOD Superintendents' Meeting #34, 13.

45 Ibid., 19: “The Personal Side of Works Injuries.” HEOD Superintendents' Meeting #35, 17, 19, and 28.

46 “Efficiency as Applied to High Explosives Works,” Discussion, 9; Discussion of “Efficiency.” 3.

47 Chandler and Salsbury, Pierre du Pout. 359–60 and 363.

48 Ibid., chart following p. 342.

49 Circular Letter #275, 25 May 1916, and Circular Letter #283, 16 Nov. 1916, Du Pont Co. Records, series 11, part 2, box 1003A, file 6.

50 Safety Division, Engineering Department, “Safety Organization and Education,” undated pamphlet [c. 1918], Du Pont Co. Records, series 11, part 2, box 8, preface.

51 Index, Instruction Sheets, Du Pont Co. Records, acc. 1615, box 1; “Safety Standards, Part I, Guarding of General Machinery,” Oct. 1917, and “Safety Standards, Part II, Protection Against Falls, Slipping and Collisions,” Jan. 1918, pamphlets, ibid., box 8.

52 “Safety Organization and Education,” 10–11.

53 Safety Instruction Sheet No. 1064, 29 Oct. 1917 and No. 1065, 26 Oct. 1917.

54 Chandler and Salsbury, Pierre du Pont, 423–27, details the difficulties the company had in dealing with the government on this project, as well as the success that completion brought. Supplemental Contract—Construction of Old Hickory, 1 April 1918, Du Pont Co. Records, series II, part 4, box 1305.

55 Safety Division—Old Hickory, “Organization and Method of Handling Work,” 23 Nov. 1918, attached to Safety Instruction Sheet No. 1131, 26 Nov. 1918, ibid.

56 Safety Instruction Sheet No. 1137, 29 Nov. 1918, ibid.

57 “Management Deliberations on Employee Relations Matters,” Du Pont Co. Records, acc. 1615, box 4.

58 Du Pont Safety Division, Safety Service 1 (Dec. 1919): 1Google Scholar.

59 Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management, 132–34; see the discussion in Stabile, Prophets of Order, 47–50.