American inventor and engineer.

At the age of 19 Taylor began an apprenticeship to become a patternmaker and machinist at the Enterprise Hydraulic Works in Philadelphia. After his apprenticeship he worked for the Midvale Steel Company, where over six years he rose through the ranks from labourer and machinist to chief engineer.

In 1881 Taylor introduced a time and motion study at the Midvale plant. This was to be the basis of his subsequent theories of management science. In his study Taylor suggested that by watching individual workers and getting rid of waste time and motion in their operation one could increase production efficiency in a factory. Through this and other measures he was able to double productivity at the Midvale plant.

Taylor graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1883 with a degree in mechanical engineering. In 1906 he was elected President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He died in Philadelphia after contracting influenza on a lecture tour of the Midwest.