One hundred years ago American management faced many of the problems it confronts today - poor productivity, rapid technological change, and heightened competition. Clockwork shows how Frederick Taylor and his followers attempted to meet these challenges through "scientific management," a radical program to organize every aspect of production under a regime of quantitative measures and systematic planning. Clockwork is the only film on Taylor's work and its continuing influence on the modern workplace. The film includes original historical footage which Taylor and his contemporaries, the Gilbreths, shot for the pioneering time-motion studies which paved the way for the modern automated assembly line and unskilled factory worker.