Frank B. Gilbreth

Born July 7, 1868 (Fairfield, Maine)

Died June 14, 1924 (New Jersey)

Lillian M. Gilbreth

Born May 24, 1878 (Oakland, California)

Died January 2, 1972 (Scottsdale, Arizona)

Industrial engineers

Management consultants

Authors

Industrial engineers Frank and Lillian Gilbreth were one of the most well-known working couples in the United States during the early years of the twentieth century. Corporations hired them for their pioneering work in scientific industrial management, while magazines profiled their smoothly run household and large family of eleven children. The Gilbreths were efficiency experts at both home and work, and they conducted motion studies, or the analysis of a specific job to determine the most efficient way to accomplish the task, and analyzed workforce behavior for dozens of industrial companies in the United States and Europe. By mid-century many of their ideas for streamlining work processes had been incorporated into the daily operations of...