Gilbreths

FRANK BUNKER GILBRETH-LILIAN EVELYN GILBRETH

American engineers who improved the technique of time and motion study and used to the work customs of industrial employees to raise their effectiveness. Frank Gilbreth ended his formal education after high school. He worked as a bricklayer. He married Lilian Moller in 1904 before he evolved into management engineer. Later he turn out to be infrequent lecturer at Purdue University. Also, Lilian Gilbreth received bachelor's and master's degrees in literature from the University of California. Lilian and Frank Gilbreth started working as professional partners and concentrated on applying the social sciences to industy. They focused on the workers rather than work environments. The Gilbreths developed the method of time and motion study-as mentioned before-and that system analytically examined and explored the mechanics and timing particular duties. After their research they published Motion Study (1911), Fatigue Study (1916) and Applied Motion Study (1917).

There was a extensive philosophical distinction between Gilberths and Frederick Winslow Taylor even though Gilbreths’ work is linked with Taylor’s time studies and grouped within the various “laws and principles”of scientific management. While Taylorism was chiefly related to reducing the time of process, Gilbreths searched for making process more efficient by reducing the motions involved. They understood their method was more concerned with the workers’ benefits than Taylor’s. Workers distinguished that Taylor’s method was more concerned about the profit. So, the gap between Gilbreths’ and Taylor’ ideas got bigger especially after Taylor’s death, argument between their followers became gigantic. After Frank Gilberth’s death Lilian Gilberth tried to repair the arguments but some tensions remained the same.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bunker_Gilbreth

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http://telecollege.dcccd.edu/mgmt1374/book_contents/1overview/management_history/mgmt_history.htm http://www.csupomona.edu/~wcweber/301/301slide/ch02301/sld008.htm