Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency.[1] He is regarded as the father of scientific management and was one of the first management consultants.[2] Taylor was one of the intellectual leaders of the Efficiency Movement and his ideas, broadly conceived, were highly influential in the Progressive Era. Taylor summed up his efficiency techniques in his book The Principles of Scientific Management. Taylor's system of scientific industrial management, which promised to reduce waste and inefficiency in the workplace through the scientific analysis of labor processes, is often referred to as Taylorism.