Frank and Lillian Gilbreth were a husband-and-wife team who worked as engineers in the

early part of the 20th century. Lillian carried on this work after the death of Frank in 1924.
Their main focus was on the fields of motion study and time study, combined with an interest
on the psychology of efficiency and work.
The Gilbreth theory held that there was a one best way to do any task. Efficiency,
according to the Gilbreth business management theory, could therefore be improved by
finding this one best way and replicating it throughout the manufacturing process. The
Gilbreths used new technologies such as film to break motions down into incremental parts,
which they called therbligs. By reducing the number of therbligs for any task, one could
increase the efficiency of the worker.
The management theory of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth can be summed up by the following:
1. Reduce the number of motions in a task to increase efficiency.
2. Focus on the incremental study of motions and time to understand an entire task.
3. The goal of increased efficiency is both increased profit and greater worker satisfaction.

Look into the technical aspects of the Lillian and Frank Gilbreth management
theory
As famous early engineers and experts in the field of motion study, the Gilbreths have several
websites devoted to them. Most of these websites give a good overview of the Gilbreth
management theory. The technical details of the Gilbreth business management theory are the
key to the understanding and implementation of this theory in work situations. By
familiarizing yourself with this theory, you can take advantage of its benefits.
biography of Lillian, with some technical details about her work, is available from the San
Diego Supercomputer Center. A brief biography and look at the Lillian and Frank Gilbreth
management theory is provided by Accel-Team. One major aspect of the Gilbreth theory, the
concept of therbligs, is explained in an article on the Gilbreth Network. The Internet Archive
offers an edited version of the Gilbreths original films of their motion study techniques.

Get details on the Frank and Lillian Gilbreth management system from books
and articles
Throughout their lifetimes, Lillian and Frank Gilbreth published a large number of articles
and books about the Gilbreth theory.
Purdue University gives a listing of all papers and articles by the Gilbreths in their collection.

Check out ways to implement the Gilbreth theory in a work environment

The Gilbreth management theory is rarely applied directly in today's workplace. However,
certain aspects of the theory, especially time-study and motion-study, can be implemented in
a variety of workplace situations. One of the major implementations of the Gilbreth theory is
in methods-time management (MTM), which is widely used in engineering.

Keep in mind that many aspects of the Gilbreth management theory have been heavily
modified over the past decades and may be mentioned under other names in
documents.

EARLY CAREER
Gilbreth discovered his vocation as a young building contractor when he sought ways to
make bricklaying faster and easier. This grew into a collaboration with his wife, Lillian
Moller Gilbreth, who studied the work habits of manufacturing and clerical employees in all
sorts of industries to find ways to increase output and make their jobs easier. He and Lillian
founded a management consulting firm, Gilbreth, Inc., focusing on such endeavors.
They were involved in the development of the design for the Simmons Hardware Company's
Sioux City Warehouse. The architects had specified that hundreds of 20-foot (6.1 m)
hardened concrete piles were to be driven in to allow the soft ground to take the weight of
two million bricks required to construct the building. The "Time and Motion" approach could
be applied to the bricklaying and the transportation. The building itself was also required to
support efficient input and output of deliveries via its own railroad switching facilities.[1]
MOTION STUDIES
Gilbreth served in the U.S. Army during World War I. His assignment was to find quicker and
more efficient means of assembling and disassembling small arms. According to Claude
George (1968), Gilbreth reduced all motions of the hand into some combination of 17 basic
motions. These included grasp, transport loaded, and hold. Gilbreth named the motions
therbligs "Gilbreth" spelled backwards with the th transposed. He used a motion picture
camera that was calibrated in fractions of minutes to time the smallest of motions in workers.
\Their emphasis on the "one best way" and therbligs predates the development of continuous
quality improvement (CQI),(George (1968, p. 98)) and the late 20th century understanding
that repeated motions can lead to workers experiencing repetitive motion injuries.
Gilbreth was the first to propose the position of "caddy" (Gilbreth's term) to a surgeon, who
handed surgical instruments to the surgeon as called for. Gilbreth also devised the standard
techniques used by armies around the world to teach recruits how to rapidly disassemble and
reassemble their weapons even when blindfolded or in total darkness

LEGACY
The work of the Gilbreths is often associated with that of Frederick Winslow Taylor, yet there
was a substantial philosophical difference between the Gilbreths and Taylor. The symbol of
Taylorism was the stopwatch; Taylor was concerned primarily with reducing process times.
The Gilbreths, in contrast, sought to make processes more efficient by reducing the motions
involved. They saw their approach as more concerned with workers' welfare than Taylorism,
which workers themselves often perceived as concerned mainly with profit. This difference
led to a personal rift between Taylor and the Gilbreths which, after Taylor's death, turned into
a feud between the Gilbreths and Taylor's followers. After Frank's death, Lillian Gilbreth took
steps to heal the rift;[4] however, some friction remains over questions of history and
intellectual property.[5]
In conducting their Motion Study method to work, they found that the key to improving work
efficiency was in reducing unnecessary motions. Not only were some motions unnecessary,
but they caused employee fatigue. Their efforts to reduce fatigue included reduced motions,
tool redesign, parts placement, and bench and seating height, for which they began to develop
workplace standards. The Gilbreths' work broke ground for contemporary understanding of
ergonomics.[6]
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth often used their large family (and Frank himself) as guinea pigs in
experiments. Their family exploits are lovingly detailed in the 1948 book Cheaper by the
Dozen, written by son Frank Jr. and daughter Ernestine (Ernestine Gilbreth Carey). The book
inspired two films of the same name one (1950) starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy,[7]
and the other (2003) starring comedians Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt,[8] which bears no
resemblance to the book, except that it features a family with twelve children, and the wife's
maiden name is Gilbreth. A 1952 sequel titled Belles on Their Toes chronicled the adventures
of the Gilbreth family after Frank's 1924 death. A later biography, Time Out For Happiness,
was authored by Frank Jr. alone and published in 1971; it is out of print and considered rare