Gilbreth, Inc.

Gilbreth, Inc. was an early management consulting firm founded by Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. and wife Lillian Moller Gilbreth. It was primarily an operation of the two founders.

The firm's methodlogy focused on efficiency through a "Time and Motion" approach, better known as motion studies. Its analysis and reports included reduction of effort and fatigue, with precursors to ergonomics.[1] The resulting recommendations focused on "one best way," an approach at odds with the later quality improvement movement. The Gilbreth approach also diverged from Taylorism, another early business/work efficiency model, primarily in its consideration of human factors.[2]

Gilbreth Inc.'s innovations were largely due to the marriage of engineering and industrial psychology[3] reflected from the marriage of its founders, who were respective experts in these fields.

The firm was founded in 1911 in Providence, Rhode Island, and later moved to Montclair, New Jersey. Gilbreth, Inc. survived the death of Frank Gilbreth in 1924, and continued until Lillian Gilbreth's retirement in the 1960s.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Dempsey, P.G. (2006). "Scientific Management Influences on Ergonomic Analysis Techniques". In Waldemar Karwowski. International Encyclopedia of Ergonomics and Human Factors. 3 (2nd ed.). CRC Press. pp. 3354–3356. ISBN 978-0-415-30430-6.
  2. ↑ Dean, Carol Carlsoon (2003). Wood, Michael C; John Cunningham, ed. "Primer of Scientific Management by Frank B. Gilbreth: a response to publication of Taylor's Principles in The American Magazine". Frank and Lillian Gilbreth: Critical Evaluations in Business and Management. London & New York: Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group). 1: 106–120. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Mother of Modern Management". San Diego Supercomputer Center. University of California at San Diego. Retrieved 9 October 2015.


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