Steel Industry In the early part of this century was a time when industry was booming with growth around the installation of major railroads. With this growth came the transatlantic cable, the telegraph, and a whole lot of steel. Steel would be needed in the construction of these new transportation systems and communications were now possible between businesses and industries. (Wren, 2005) This paper will first discuss the development of the steel industry. Next, it will examine steel, and in the impact it had on the transportation industry. Finally, it will discuss systematic management practices of this time and how they gave birth to the scientific approach that is still in use today. Steel The steel industry was needed for almost everything. Alfred D Chandler Jr. could see the potential market value early on. According to Wren: Chandler traced the history of various firms and delineated four phases in the history of the large U.S. enterprise: 1. The initial expansion and accumulation of resources 2. The rationalization of the use of resources 3. The expansion into new markets and lines to help assure the full use of resources; 4. The development of a new structure that rationalized the renewal of growth. For many companies, the phases started and ended at different times, depending on the state of technology and the firm’s ability to react and capitalize on market opportunities. Chandler further noted two facets of industrial growth: 1. Horizontal growth from 1879 to 1893- which occurred when producers of similar fields combined through mergers, pools, or trusts to gain economies of scale, and 2. Vertical growth from 1898 to 1904- which occurred when firms moved backward or forward in ter... ... middle of paper ... ...vents/pande01.html English Online. (Ed.). (n.d.). The Industrial Revolution. Retrieved April 23, 2012, from English-online.com Web site: http://www.english-online.at/history/industrial-revolution/industrial-revolution-manufacturing.htm History.com. (Ed.). (n.d.). Andrew Carnegie. Retrieved April 23, 2012, from History.com Web site: http://www.history.com/topics/andrew-carnegie Kernsanalysis.com. (Ed.). (n.d.). An Overview of Management. Retrieved April 24, 2012, from Fredrick Taylor Scientific Management Web site: http://www.kernsanalysis.com/sjsu/ise250/history.htm Vectorstudy.com. (Ed.). (2008). Henri Fayol Management Gurus. Retrieved April 25, 2012, from Vector Study.com Web site: http://www.vectorstudy.com/management_gurus/henri_fayol.htm Wren. (2005). The History of Management Thought (5th ed.). Danvers, MA: Wiley & Sons. (Original work published 1976)
The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1921. Print. The. Parker, Nathan.
WriteWork. "The 19th Century 'Railroad Boom.'" WriteWork . N.p., 1 May 2003. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.
Railroads were America’s first big business and contributed a great deal towards advancing industrialization. Beginning in the early 1870's, railroad construction in the United States expanded substantially. Before the year 1871, approximately fourty-five thousand miles of track had been laid. Up until the 1900's another one-hundred and seventy thousand miles were added to the nation's growing railroad system. This growth came about due to the erection of transcontinental railroads. Railroads supplied cities and towns with food, fuel, materials, and access to markets. The railroad system made way for an economic prosperity. The railroad system helped to build the physical growth of cities and towns. It even became another means of communication. Most importantly, it helped to produce a second
Szostak, R. 1991. Role of transportation in the industrial revolution : A comparison of england and france. Montreal, QC, CAN: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Throughout the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, the United States economy changed dramatically as the country transformed from a rural agricultural nation to an urban industrial gian, becoming the leading manufacturing country in the world. The vast expansion of the railroads in the late 1800s’ changed the early American economy by tying the country together into one national market. The railroads provided tremendous economic growth because it provided a massive market for transporting goods such as steel, lumber, and oil. Although the first railroads were extremely successful, the attempt to finance new railroads originally failed. Perhaps the greatest physical feat late 19th century America was the creation of the transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Company, starting in San Francisco, and the new competitor, Union Pacific, starting in Omaha. The two companies slaved away crossing mountains, digging tunnels, and laying track the entire way. Both railroads met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869, and drove one last golden spike into the completed railway. Of course the expansion of railroads wasn’t the only change being made. Another change in the economy was immigration.
...fare took place as unions attempted to organize the automobile and steel industries. Despite the antagonism of big business, organized labor continued to grow.
There is no refuting that the railroad companies transformed business operations and encouraged industrial expansion. The raw materials required for construction of the transcontinental railroad directly resulted in the expansion of the steel, lumber and stone industries. (Gillon p.652) The railroad stimulated growth in manufacturing and agriculture providing an efficient manner to ship raw materials and products throughout the country. Which in turn, increased consumerism and introduced t...
"Railroads were the first big business, the first magnet for the great financial markets, and the first industry to develop a large-scale management bureaucracy. The railroads opened the western half of the nation to economic development, connected raw materials to factories and retailers, and in so doing created an interconnected national market. At the same time the railroads were themselves gigantic consumers of iron, steel, lumber, and other capital goods". (Tindall, Shi)
Industrialization seemed to be a good thing; it offered more jobs which in turn seemed to offer more money and would cause more spending to support the economy. The construction of railroads was the nation’s first big business. The development of a nationwide railroad network had the greatest impact on American economic life. But in many industries like railroads and mining, the work was very dangerous and life threatening, so much to the point that an estimated twenty percent of those who worked in these industries quit their jobs, but with high immigration levels, these jobs were reassigned to those who needed the extra income such as children, though to a certain extent.
...l presented polluting influences, so new innovation must be imagined to dispose of them. Wrought iron was not effectively produced from mineral fuel pig iron until the center of the eighteenth century.
American industries were booming post civil war. The transcontinental railroad was instrumental in the progress of the nation’s industrial movement, and the westward expansion. The railroad required tons of steel, and wood, which was provided though the steel and wood factories. The railroad created many jobs throughout the nation, according to PBS, "Railroads were the nation's largest non-agricultural employer. Banks and other industries were putting their money in railroads." This meant that industries other than the railroad and banks were spending money to get the railway build so they could continue their westward expansion.
The Industrial Revolution refers to the greatly increased output of machine-made goods that began in England in the mid 1700s. Before the Industrial Revolution, people made items by hand. Soon machines did the jobs that people didn’t want to do. This is a more efficient way of making goods. During the industrial revolution, political, economic, and social forces led to a period of upheaval for the French during the eighteenth century.
The Bethlehem Steel was the was second largest steel company in the United States during its booming years. They made steel that built the Golden State bridge, skyscrapers in New York and tanks and war equipment for WW2. It seemed like the Bethlehem steel would never close, but like every good thing it had to come to an end. One major reason the steel was shut down was because they didn’t advance their equipment and unlike the Bethlehem Steel, foreign steel companies upgraded their equipment with mini mills which allowed them to produce steel cheaper and at a quicker rate. The Bethlehem Steel should have changed certains things, but since they had to close there is one thing I’d preserve about the the Bethlehem steel is their large blast furnaces.
Robbins, S.P., & Coulter, M. (2009). Management (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Sandvik’s expansion was facilitated through a strategy of unrelated diversification predicated upon innovation. Technologies, such as cemented carbide fueled, product development and gave rise to new business areas. Such advances, coupled with a strong emphasis on internationalization, drove growth for a long time. However, growth slowed during the 1970s and into the 1980s. Much of the growth achieved during this period was a result of acquisitions.