Frank Gilbreth: biography of this engineer and researcher

The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th meant the arrival of the second industrial revolution and with it a modernization of industrial processes.

To better understand some of the methodologies that emerged and that were an impulse for the factories, it is necessary to study the lives of figures such as Frank Gilbreth. In these paragraphs we will learn about his life and his main contributions to the labor sciences and more specifically to industrial engineering, through a biography of Frank Gilbreth.

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Short Biography of Frank Bunker Gilbreth

Frank Bunker Gilbreth was born in Fairfield, belonging to the state of Maine in the USA, in the year 1868. His origins were very humble, as his mother taught at a nearby school and his father combined his work as a rancher with his work in a hardware store. What's more, his father passed away when Frank Gilbreth was very youngBecause he was only three years old when this tragic event took place. Following the death of his father, the family decided to move to Andover, in the state of Massachusetts.

His father's inheritance vanished in a few years, and Frank Gilbreth's mother's salary as a teacher wasn't enough to support her family, considering the exclusive colleges she took her children to.

Therefore, he made the decision to move again, this time to Boston, in search of quality public schools where students children could continue their studies without this involving the large financial outlay that he had to make in his previous Location.

Youth and first innovations

Frank Gilbreth was not an outstanding student in the school, although he progressively focused more on studying, he was especially attracted to subjects that had to do with mathematics and science. So much so that he even took the tests to enter the prestigious MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), but the economic situation of his house made her finally give it up and instead began to work to alleviate the financial pressure suffered by her mother.

This is how, being 17 years old, he started in his first job, no less than as a bricklayer, through the mediation of a former teacher. And this point was key in the life of Frank Gilbreth for his future contributions, since his work as a worker allowed him to observe the multiple ways that he had to perform any task, no matter how simple, and he was always interested in finding a way to optimize to the maximum All of them. Thus, Gilbreth progressed and rose, while studying at night.

With that perseverance and effort, Frank Gilbreth, In just 5 years, he was promoted to superintendent, which finally managed to alleviate the economic situation of the home. And it is here when he began a stage of innovation for the industry, thanks to his awakened mind and his own experience. The first patent he issued was for a vertical scaffold, the purpose of which was to allow the worker to always he had the brick stack accessible at the level he was working on, without having to scroll constantly.

It also improved the structures in which the workers worked, waterproofing them. He also took it upon himself to perfect the concrete work. In his meteoric growth in the industry, he became a member of ASME, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and reached the highest level he could in the company, being already superintendent boss. However, Renton Whidden, a former teacher and boss for a decade, did not give him the opportunity to become a partner, so Frank Gilbreth set out on his own adventure.

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Development of his career: Gilbreth Inc.

A stage of growth begins for Frank Gilbreth. Now a management engineer, he continues to register patents for different inventions, he begins jobs as a contractor in the construction sector as well, and even becomes a professor at Purdue University.

During this time also marries Lillian Moller, an industrial engineer and psychologist, who will also be his partner in later work and research.

Already as a contractor, Frank Gilbreth continues to think of ways to make masonry tasks more efficient. For these issues, the work of his wife is vital, thanks to her studies.

Therefore, both founded Gilbreth Inc., a management consultancy specialized in optimizing company procedures. Frank Gilbreth and his wife are in charge of designing the roadmap to construct buildings as important as the Sioux City warehouse of the Simmons Hardware Company.

The construction plan of this huge building was perfect to put into practice all the studies of Frank Gilbreth and his wife.

Both the construction of the block itself, as well as the design of the facilities so that the corresponding tasks of the operators are carried out in a manner totally efficient, optimizing the incoming and outgoing flow of materials, through a system of railway tracks where they managed the arrival and departure of wagons.

Movement studies

In 1917, the United States entered the First World War, which had already been fought in Europe since 1914. In this war period, the government hires the services of Frank Gilbreth to apply his industrial engineering knowledge to the arms sector.

For this he developed a method that consisted of the 17 basic movements required to assemble and disassemble a weapon, with total optimization. To create this procedure he used video cameras. He christened this method the "therbligs", an anagram of his own name.

The standardization of these basic movements was so powerful that, once learned, soldiers were able to disassemble and reassemble their weapons even while blindfolded, which could be extrapolated to low visibility conditions in the trenches or times when they could not look directly due to the battle situation. In other words, through the 17 basic moves, he somehow perfected the way of making war.

Frank Gilbreth had already brought his expertise in the study of movement to the construction and war industries. But his contribution did not end there.

Also he brought this knowledge to healthcare, since he was the one who proposed the figure of the assistant in the operating rooms, so that one person would be in charge of delivering all the instruments to the surgeon as he went needed, so that he would not have to move or lose concentration in a task of so many precision.

Although many people associate these contributions with those of Frederick Taylor and his Taylorism, the truth is that this trend was in the line of minimizing deadlines. production, while Frank Gilbreth what he was looking for was a total optimization and efficiency, by making the right number of movements to make a homework. Although both methodologies may have parts in common and even overlap in some procedures, the truth is that they are different conceptualizations.

This difference of views even translated into a certain enmity on a personal level between both families and some disputes on a commercial level over some of the patents that both registered. In the years after Frank Gilbreth's death, Lillian struggled to end these feuds and regain a cordial relationship between her family and Frederick Taylor's.

The studies of Frank Gilbreth and his wife brought another contribution, and that is that, by reducing the movements of the workers, they also reduced the fatigue they experienced in their workday.

This was achieved not only by proposing fewer movements for the task, but also by proposing new designs for some tools, and placing the necessary elements for the work in certain positions and heights determined. In other words, you were creating ergonomics at work.

Death and legacy

Frank gerbreth he died in 1924, with only 55 years old, due to a heart attack, leaving Lillian a widow and her twelve children orphans. And it is that both had formed an extensive family that had also been worth to put into practice and perfect some of their optimization techniques, as they had twelve perfect participants in their own home for all their experiments.

Thanks to these tests, one of his children wrote, as an adult, the famous work of Cheaper by the Dozen, or Twelve at home, which even had its film version, and is part of Frank Gilbreth's legacy, along with all his contributions to industrial engineering, ergonomics and the improvement of different processes. productive. Without a doubt, a key figure for the evolution of the way of working, both in factories and in many professions.

Bibliographic references:

• Baumgart, A., Neuhauser, D. (2009). Frank and Lillian Gilbreth: scientific management in the operating room. BMJ Quality & Safety.
• Nadworny, M.J. (1957). Frederick Taylor and Frank Gilbreth: competition in scientific management. The Business History Review.
• Price, B. (1990). Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and the motion study controversy, 1907-1930. A Mental Revolution: Scientific Management Since Taylor.