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

Donald Stabile

Business History Review, 1987, vol. 61, issue 3, 365-386

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.

Date: 1987
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