Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

CHAPTER VI STANDARDIZATION AND CLASSIFICA- TION The word “ standardization ” is hardly yet familiar to English ears, though it is a very common one now among American writers on business methods, in discussions on industries of all kinds. Unfortu- nately the word “ standard ” has more than one accepted meaning, so that its new derivative is likely to be ambiguous. It should be said at once that standardization has a rather different meaning in scientific management from that in which it is used in general American discussion. In the latter case it refers usually to the indication and definition of some article pf product, by size, weight, or some other criterion, so that it may always be exactly identified. The article may be tubing, or wire, or some small part manufactured to be fitted into a large machine or engine; and to say it is standardized means that exactly the same thing can be obtained if the order is repeated, so that there are no trouble- some adaptations necessary. For instance, we hear that the American Society of Automobile Engineers, finding that 1,100 sizes of seamless steel tubes were being made, prevailed upon the manufacturers to reduce the number to 160; again, finding that 60