Henry Gantt

“Henry Gantt – Management Hall of Fame”

“For continuous flow production such as this I know of nothing better for recording output and comparing performance with capacity or what ought to be produced, than the straight line charts developed by Mr. H. L. Gantt, which show required and actual production in terms of both quantity and time. Their use, however, is not limited to the class of work just described.”

“For more than twenty years Mr. Gantt has been closely interested in advanced work in the field of labor management. For more than ten years his name has been identified with certain methods which, nevertheless, are yet but partially and imperfectly understood by many, and because of this incomplete understanding are sometimes supposed to be summed up in the "Bonus System" of wage payment.”

“Engineers were the only members of the community "who understand the needs of the nation, desires of the workmen, and the power of the productive forces"”

“It is becoming perfectly clear that the principles underlying industrial and military efficiency are the same and that a nation, to be efficient in a military sense, must first be efficient industrially”

“Taylor’s friend Henry Gantt explains to his fellow engineers in the middle of the First World War that they must "develop a task system on the basis of democracy that will yield as good, or better, results than those now in operation under autocracy"”

“"Whatever we do must be in accord with human nature. We cannot drive people; we must direct their development... The general policy of the past has been to drive, but the era of force must give way to that of knowledge, and the policy of the future will be to teach and to lead, to the advantage of all concerned"”

“The mechanical engineer today is carrying forward, under the direction of science, the work that was begun by the mechanic who first learned to chip flint or make a fire ; and it is he alone that can lead the mechanic of today to a better understanding of his problems, and the capitalist to a better appreciation of their solution.”

“Finance and industry must be socialized somehow. If we refuse to do it from the bottom we shall have to do it from the top, and doing it from the top means the emergence of many Prussias — with wars upon wars.”

“The aim of our efficiency has not been to produce goods, but to harvest dollars... The production of goods was always secondary to the securing of dollars.”

“The greatest problem before engineers and managers today is the economical utilization of labor. The limiting of output by the workman, and the limiting by the employer of the amount a workman is allowed to earn, are both factors which militate against that harmonious co-operation of employer and employee which is essential to their highest common good.”