Gilbreth

BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC HISTORY, Second Series, Volume Eighteen, 1989. Copyright (c) 1989 by the Business History Conference. ISSN 0849-6825

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and the Manufacture and Marketing of Motion Study, 1908-1924
BRIAN PRICE The Evergreen State College Even as large-scale enterprises increasingly integrated the manufacture and marketing of mass-produced goods in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scientific managers elaborated and popularized their efficiency methods and strategies in an attempt to carve out a distinctive scientific professional niche within the changing industrial world. No one worked more assiduously in this effort than Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, and no one was more conscious of the intimate relationship between the manufacture and the marketing of an innovative product. Indeed, my central argument is that the Gilbreths’ fame and reputation is due less to the inherent quality of their motion study techniques, or to their achievements in practical motion study and scientific management installation, than to their prolific efforts to publicize both themselves as humane scientists and their principles and techniques as conducive to greater efficiency and workplace harmony. In fact, in a period characterized by rapidly changing business dynamics and troubled labor-management relations, the Gilbreths found that their motion study methods, though sound in theory, at best produced only partial and temporary efficiencies in practice, and more often than not exacerbated tensions, not only between the workers and managers they were supposed to reconcile, but also among scientific managers themselves. Ultimately, the Gilbreths simply were less successful as manufacturers than as marketers of their motion study strategies. That their strategies and techniques survived and prospered is testimony less to their intrinsic worth as they practiced them than to the image of their worth which the Gilbreths carefully cultivated. Prior to his

References: 1. John Aidrich, Discussion of “The Present State of the Art of Industrial Management,” American Society of Mechanical Engineers Transactions, 34 (1912), 1182-87. 2. “Bricklaying Yields to Science for First Time,” New York Times Sunday Magazine (March 30, 1911), n.p., Box 3, File 0030-20A, Gilbreth Collection, Purdue University. 3. Fred H. Colvin, “The Latest Development in Motion Study,” American Machinist, 38 (June 5, 1913), 937-39. 4. Committee of Bricklayers Union No. 44, Mass., to Mr. Askins, Superintendent, F.B. Gilbreth Company (May 19, 1908), File 59A, Taylor Collection, Stevens Institute of Technology. 5. John Galliard, Daily Letters to Frank B. Gilbreth on the American Radiator Company (1923-24), Box 173, File 0990-4, Gilbreth Collection. 6. Frank B. Gilbreth, Bricklaying System (New York, 1909). 7. ____, Concrete System (New York, 1908). 8. ____, Field System (New York, 1908). 9. ____, First Summer School of Scientific Management, typescript (August 1913), Gilbreth, Library, Purdue University. 10. , “Modern Concrete Machinery,” advertising pamphlet [1903], Box 3, File 0030-18, Gilbreth Collection. 11. ____, “Rapid Building Construction,” advertising pamphlet [1904], Box 3, File 0030-18, Gilbreth Collection. 12. ____, Report to R.O. Kennedy, Cluett-Peabody Company, typescript (May 1917), Box 97, File 0714, Gilbreth Collection. 13. ____, Second Summer School of Scientific Management, typescript, four volumes (August 1914), Gilbreth Ubrary, Purdue University. 14. Frank B. Gilbreth, The Primer of Scientific Management (New York, 1914; 1st. edition, 1912; rpt., Easton, 1973). 15. ____, “The Theory at Work,” Journal of Accountancy, 12 (July 1911 ), 195200. 16. ____, Third Summer School of Scientific Management, typescript, three volumes (August, 1915, Gilbreth Ubrary, Purdue University. 10 17. ____, U.S. Rubber Company Notes, Box 170, File 0982-1, Gilbreth Collection. 18. ____, untitled lecture, typescript (April 28, 1911), Box 99, File 0721-2, Gilbreth Collection. 19. ____, Frank B. and Lillian M. Gilbreth, “An Indictment of Stop Watch Time Study,” Taylor Society Bulletin, 6 (June 1921), 99-108. 20. ____, Applied Motion Study: A Collection of Papers on the Efficient Method to Industrial Preparedness (New York, 1919; 1st edition, 1917). 21. ____, Correspondence, BOx 112, File 0813-5, Gilbreth Collection. 22. ____, Correspondence, Box 112, File 0813-6, Gilbreth Collection. 23. ____, Correspondence, Box 114, File 0813-14, Gilbreth Collection. 24. ____, “Educating the Workers for Higher Efficiency,” Iron Age, 96 (December 30, 1915), 1530-33. 25. ____, “The Engineer, the Cripple, and the New Education,” in Motion Study for the Handicapped (London, 1920), 89-109. 26. ____, “Fatigue Study: A First Step in Safety Work,” National Safety Council, Proceedings, 10 (September 28, 1921), 838-45. 27. Frank B. and Lillian M. Gilbreth, Fatigue Study: The Elimination of Humanity’s Greatest Waste; A First Step in Motion Study (New York, 1919; 1st edition, New York, 1916). 28. ____, “Motion Study for the Crippled Soldier, in Applied Motion Study (see 20.), 131-57. 29. ____, “The Three Position Plan for Promotion,” Iron Age, 96 (November 4, 1915), 1057-59. 30. ____, “The Work, The Worker, and His Wa9e,” Iron Age, 97 (March 9, 1916), 602-04. 31. ____, Frank B. Gilbreth and C. Bertrand Thompson, Correspondence, Box 122, File 0816-131, Gilbreth Collection. 32. Lillian M. Gilbreth, Psychology of Management: the Function of Mind in Determining, Teaching, and Installing Methods of Least Waste (New York, 1914). 33. ____, “Time and Motion Study Developments,” American Machinist, 66 (May 19, 1927), 872. 34. Samuel Gompers, “The Miracles of Efficiency,” American Federationist, 18 (April 1911), 277. 35. Frank C. Hudson, “The Machinist’s Side of Taylorism,” American Machinist, 34 (April 27, 1911), 773. 36. R.T. Kent, Discussion of “The Present State of Art of Industrial Management,” American Society of Mechanical Engineers Transactions, 34 (1912), 1187-89. 37. ____, “The Taylor Society Twenty Years Ago,” Taylor Society Bulletin, 17 11 (February 1932), 39-40. 38. Nathaniel Major, “History of Frank B. Gilbreth’s Work at Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Co.,” typescript (September 26, 1919), Box 162, File 0972-7, Gilbreth Collection. 39. AJlan H. Mogensen, editor, Common Sense Applied to Motion Study (New York, 1931). 40. “Movies to Help Baseball Players Economize Force,” New York Tribune (June 15, 1913), n.p., Box 5, File 0030-25, Gilbreth Collection. 41. H.F.J. Porter, “Industrial Betterment,” Cassier’s Megazine, 38 (August 1910), 303-14. 42. “Refuse to Lay Bricks by Rule,” New York Times (March 29, 1911 ), n.p., Box 3, File 0030- 20A, Gilbreth Collection. 43. “Say Brandeis Plan Proves Effective,” New York Times (March 28, 1911), 10. 44. “Society of Industrial Engineers,” Industrial Management, 59 (January 1920), 54-55. 45. Frederick W. Taylor, Discussion of “The Present State of the Art of Industrial Management,” American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Transactions, Vol. 34 (1912), pp. 1194-201. 46. ____, “The Principles of Scientific Management,” Scientific Management by F.W. Taylor (New York, 1947). 47. Frederick W. Taylor and Frank B. Gilbreth, Correspondence, File 59A, Taylor Collection. 48. U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, Industrial Relations, Senate Doc. 415, 64th. Congress, 1st. Session, Ten Volumes (Washington, 1916). 49. U.S. Interstate Commerce commission, Evidence Taken By The Interstate Commerce Commission, Proposed Advances in Freight Rates By Carriers, August to December 1910, Ten Volumes (Washington, 1911). 50. Robert G. Valentine, “Scientific Management and Organized Labor,” Society for the Promotion of the Science of Management Bulletin, I (January 1915), pp. 3-9. 51. S.E. Whitaker, Daily Job Reports on the New England Butt Company, Providence, Rhode Island, Box 159, File 0952-2, Gilbreth Collection. 52. Edna Yost, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth: Partners for Life (New Brunswick, 1949). 12