Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
Frank Gilbreth
Frank Bunker Gilbreth (July 7, 1868,
Fairfield, Maine - June 14, 1924, Montclair, New Jersey) was an early
advocate of scientific management and a pioneer of motion study, and is
perhaps best known as the father and central figure of Cheaper by the
Dozen.
Gilbreth had no formal education beyond high school. He began as a
bricklayer, became a building contractor, an inventor, and evolved into
management engineer. He eventually became an occasional lecturer at
Purdue University, which houses his papers. He married Lillian Moller
Gilbreth in 1904; they had 12 children, 11 of whom survived him. Their
names are Anne, Mary (died in 1912), Ernestine, Martha, Frank Jr.,
William, Lillian, Fred, Daniel, John, Robert and Jane. Gilbreth died
suddenly of heart failure at age 55. Lillian outlived him by 48 years.
Gilbreth discovered his vocation when, as a young building contractor,
he sought ways to make bricklaying (his first trade) faster and easier.
This grew into a collaboration with his eventual spouse, Lillian Moller
Gilbreth, that 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.
According to Claude George (1968), Gilbreth reduced all motions of the
hand into some combination of 18 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.
George noted that the Gilbreths were, above all, scientists who sought
to teach managers that all aspects of the workplace should be constantly
questioned, and improvements constantly adopted. Their emphasis on the
"one best way" and the therbligs predates the development of continuous
quality improvement (CQI) (George 1968: 98), and the late 20th century
understanding that repeated motions can lead to workers experiencing
repetitive motion injuries.
Gilbreth was the first to propose that a surgical nurse serve as "caddy"
(Gilbreth's term) to a surgeon, by handing 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. These innovations have arguably helped save millions of
lives.
Although the Gilbreths' work is often associated with that of Frederick
Winslow Taylor, there was a substantial philosophical difference between
the Gilbreths and Taylor. The symbol of Taylorism was the stopwatch, and
Taylorism was primarily concerned with reducing the time of processes.
The Gilbreths sought to make processes more efficient by reducing the
motions involved. They saw their approach as more concerned with
workers' welfare than was Taylorism, which workers often perceived as
primarily concerned with profit. This 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 (Price 1990), although some
friction remains over questions of history and intellectual property.
[1]
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 his
son Frank Jr. and daughter Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. The book inspired
two films of the same name, one (1950) starring Clifton Webb and Myrna
Loy, and the other (2003) starring comedians Steve Martin and Bonnie
Hunt. The latter film bears no resemblance to the book except that both
feature a family with twelve children. A 1950 sequel, titled Belles on
Their Toes, chronicles the adventures of the Gilbreth family after
Frank's 1924 death. A second sequel, Time Out For Happiness, was
authored by Frank Jr. alone and published in 1971. It is out of print
and considered rare.
Lillian Gilbreth
Lillian Moller Gilbreth, BA, MA, PhD,
(b. Lillian Evelyn Moller May 24, 1878, Oakland, California � d. January
2, 1972, Phoenix, Arizona) was one of the first working female engineers
holding a PhD.
She is arguably the first true industrial/organizational psychologist.
She and her husband Frank Bunker Gilbreth were pioneers in the field of
industrial engineering. Their interest in time and motion study may have
had something to do with the fact that they had an extremely large
family. The books Cheaper By The Dozen and Belles on Their Toes are the
story of their family life with their twelve children.
In 1984, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor.
She is considered "The First Lady of Engineering" and was the first
woman elected into the National Academy of Engineering. She was a
professor at Purdue University, The Newark College of Engineering and
the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She served as an advisor to Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Eisenhower,
Kennedy and Johnson on matters of civil defense, war production and
rehabilitation of the physically handicapped.
She and husband Frank have a permanent exhibit in The Smithsonian
National Museum of American History and her portrait hangs in the
National Portrait Gallery.
She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA
(1900) and MA (1902). Lillian completed her dissertation to obtain her
Ph.D from the University of California but did not receive the degree
because she was not able to complete the residency requirements. Her
dissertation was called The Psychology of Management. She later went on
to earn a Ph.D from Brown University in 1915. It was the first granted
in industrial psychology. She also received 22 honorary degrees from
schools such as Princeton University, Brown University and the
University of Michigan.
Lillian married Frank Bunker Gilbreth (1868 � 1924) in 1904 and they
were the parents of twelve children, eleven of whom lived to adulthood.
Their children are Anne, Mary (died in 1912), Ernestine, Martha, Frank
Jr., Bill, Lillian, Fred, Dan, Jack, Bob and Jane, all of whom are
deceased, with the exception of Fred.
Frank and Lillian both greatly loved children. They made a decision at
the beginning of their marriage to have a dozen kids.
Together she and her husband were partners in the management consulting
firm of Gilbreth, Inc. which performed time and motion studies. Their
children took great part in this. They would do experiments together.
Frank Bunker Gilbreth
Frank Bunker Gilbreth was
born on July 7, 1868 in Fairfield, Maine. He was a bricklayer, a
building contractor, and a management engineer. He was a member of the
ASME, the Taylor Society (precursor to the SAM), and a lecturer at
Purdue University. Frank died on June 14, 1924.
Lillian Evelyn Moller
Lillian Evelyn Moller was
born on May 24, 1878 in Oakland, California. She graduated from the
University of California with a B.A. and M.A. and went on to earn a
Ph.D. from Brown University. She earned membership in the ASME, and like
her husband lectured at Purdue University. Lillian died on January 2,
1972.
Frank and Lillian were married in 1904 and were parents of twelve
children. Together they were partners in the management consulting firm
of Gilbreth, Inc.
Pioneers in Improvement and
our Modern Standard of Living
IW/SI News, Issue 18,
September 1968, pgs. 37-38
One of the great husband-and-wife teams
of science and engineering, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth early in the
1900s collaborated on the development of motion study as an engineering
and management technique. Frank Gilbreth was much concerned until his
death in 1924, with the relationship between human beings and human
effort.
Frank Gilbreth's well-known work in
improving brick-laying in the construction trade is a good example of
his approach. From his start in the building industry, he observed that
workers developed their own peculiar ways of working and that no two
used the same method. In studying bricklayers, he noted that individuals
did not always use the same motions in the course of their work. These
observations led him to seek one best way to perform tasks.
He developed many improvements in
brick-laying. A scaffold he invented permitted quick adjustment of the
working platform so that the worker would be at the most convenient
level at all times. He equipped the scaffold with a shelf for the bricks
and mortar, saving the effort formerly required by the workman to bend
down and pick up each brick. He had the bricks stacked on wooden frames,
by low-priced laborers, with the best side and end of each brick always
in the same position, so that the bricklayer no longer had to turn the
brick around and over to look for the best side to face outward. The
bricks and mortar were so placed on the scaffold that the brick-layer
could pick up a brick with one hand and mortar with the other. As a
result of these and other improvements, he reduced the number of motions
made in laying a brick from 18 to 4 1/2.
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth continued
their motion study and analysis in other fields and pioneered in the use
of motion pictures for studying work and workers. They orginated
micro-motion study, a breakdown of work into fundamental elements now
called therbligs (derived from Gilbreth spelled backwards). These
elements were studied by means of a motion-picture camera and a timing
device which indicated the time intervals on the film as it was exposed.
After Frank Gilbreth's death, Dr.
Lillian Gilbreth continued the work and extended it into the home in an
effort to find the "one best way" to perform household tasks. She has
also worked in the area of assistance to the handicaped, as, for
instance, her design of an ideal kitchen layout for the person afflicted
with heart disease. She is widely recognized as one of the world's great
industrial and management engineers and has traveled and worked in many
countries of the world.
Frank Gilbreth ws born on July 7,
1868--his centennial should mark a milestone in management and work
simplification. By 1912, he left the construction business to devote
himself entirely to "scientific management"--a term coined, in Gantt's
apartment, by a group including Gilbreth. But to him it was more than
merely the mouthing of slogans to be foisted on a worker at a job in a
plant. It was a philosophy that pervaded home and school, hospital and
community, in fact, life itself. It was something that could be achieved
only by cooperation--cooperation between engineers, educators,
physiologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, economists, sociologists,
statisticians, managers. Most important--at the core of it all, there
was the individual, his comfort, his happiness, his service, and his
dignity.
By now, too, there was no mistaking the
partnership--even though the wife's modesty, reticence, and sex could
mislead all but the knowing. However, one accomplishment is strangely
the contribution of Frank Gilbreth alone--even though she may have given
of herself to make it possible. This construction is perhaps the
greatest of all: the development of Lillian Moller Gilbreth. Few
marriages thoughout history can match this romance of husband and wife,
both whose names have become famous in the same field. The heights that
such a partnership can achieve is probably best realized by attempting
to name other such combinations--Pierre and Marie Curie, Charles and
Mary Beard, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Elizabeth and Robert Browning.
Surely there are not many--but they are impressive.
Throughout his life, Lillian Gilbreth
remained, in her eyes, the junior partner. After his death, she said: "I
have had more in twenty years than any other woman I have known has had
in a lifetime." With him gone, she knew precisely what she had to do:
carry on as he would do. This meant family and work. These were tasks
for which many of the Gilbreth friends offered their help. Yet these
were tasks that she knew she must perform alone. How well she
accomplished them--most would say is a tribute to her, her spirit, her
character, her intelligence, her strength. All this she would simply and
emphatically deny. For to her, it goes without saying, it was simply a
tribute to Frank Gilbreth. And who is to say that she may not be right?
"When it comes to the questioning
method, of course he shared with all the scientific management group the
belief in the value of questions and the need to ask these questions
over and over determining how the thing was to be done and why it was
done and how the betterment could be brought about."
"The things which concerned him more than anything else were the what and the why--the
what because he felt it was necessary to know absolutely what you were
questioning and what you were doing or what concerned you, and then the
why, the depth type of thinking which showed you the reason for doing
the thing and would perhaps indicate clearly whether you should maintain
what was being done or should change what was being done."
"This emphasis is a little different
from what most people think about Frank and his work, and about the
people who worked along these ways. Generally people expect that the
most emphasis would be on the where and the when and the how. The how
is, of course, in most people's minds very closely identified with
motion study, work study, directed energy, work simplification or
whatever name is given to this type of work today."
"When he considered the what he thought
continuously, not only of the ideal thing that was to be done and the
ideal method that was to be used in order to get this done. That of
course, was at the base of his favorite concept which was 'the quest of
the one best way.' "
It is both easy and difficult to
analyze this First Lady of Engineering. She is the epitome of
crystal-clear logic--even though she seems to be a mass of
contradictions. Trained in literature, she has found her place in
engineering. As an engineer, she has found people more important than
machines; waging a never-ending war on fatigue. One, watching her
unceasing rounds of work, activity, and travel, can rightfully believe
that she has created a non-existent foe. An extremely busy woman, she
seems to have more time for things than most people. And, as kind and as
gentle as she is, she can don armor and do more than hold her ground in
defending the right.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bunker_Gilbreth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Moller_Gilbreth
http://gilbrethnetwork.tripod.com/bio.html
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