The Origins of Efficiency

Potter traces the genealogy of efficiency as an organising principle — from the early factory system and interchangeable parts through Frederick Taylor's scientific management, the assembly line, statistical quality control, and lean manufacturing. The book shows that efficiency is not a natural law but a cultural invention, one that had to be argued for, institutionalised, and repeatedly reinvented as production contexts changed. Each chapter reveals how the metrics and methods product teams use daily — cycle time, throughput, waste elimination — carry assumptions inherited from specific historical moments. For product directors, the value is in understanding that the frameworks they apply are not neutral tools but artefacts of particular industrial philosophies. Potter writes with the clarity of someone who spent years researching construction productivity on his blog, and the result is an intellectual history that makes the present legible.