Frank Bunker Gilbreth (1868-1924): A Pioneer of Industrial Engineering

Frank Bunker Gilbreth (1868-1924): Industrial Engineering in Construction Industry

Urwick and Brech say Gilbreth takes his place with Taylor and Gantt as the third point in the triangle foundation on which the full science of management was built. He is the human element and human aspect man. Gilbreth started his employment in the building industry. Frank Gilbreth, at the age of 17, became a bricklayer’s apprentice. He planned from the outset to go through form tradesman to foreman, and thence to superintendent and manager. He attended evening classes with view to securing the technical knowledge of the building industry and in practice he worked through trade after trade until he had mastered all the arts of construction. He had opportunities of learning railway construction, estimating cost of work and carrying out jobs at headquarters. Owing to the prevailing shortage of supervisory staff, he quite soon moved up the first rungs of the ladder.

His promotion was rapid, and within 10 years, by the age of 27, he became chief superintendent of the company. He also made some significant contributions to the technical discipline. Quite early in his career, he was awarded a prize at the Mechanics Institute for a new design of scaffolding. His further contributions were a new method of water-proofing cellars, and a number of patents in the field of concrete construction. As with Fayol in coal-mining, or with Taylor in high-speed steel and belting, the first directions in which an original and powerful scientific intelligence found expression were purely technical and practical. They were concerned with improvements in the equipment and processes used in the actual task on which each of the three was engaged.

In April 1985, Gilbreth resigned and set up his own contracting business in the city of Boston. His experience of managing the construction contracts resulted in three early publications by him, Field System (1908), Concrete System (1908) and Bricklaying System (1909), each of them a study of methods by which the working organization and practice of his firm had been built up. One of his major and most valuable pieces of work was the reconstruction of California after the earthquake.

It is interesting to note that Urwick and Brech comment that in the book Bricklaying System, “more or less unconsciously to himself (Gilbreth) there was coming into his work systematically and finally the scientific handling of the human element.” The task of integrating human element into work systems was started by Gilbreth in this book. This initial attempt became the core focus in Motion Study (1911). The human elements in the planning of work became the dominant theme of the book.

Gilbreth met Taylor and attended his lecture courses regularly. He found that much that he had done was paralleled by what Taylor has done, and that Taylor’s method of timing how long it takes to do work was new to him, while his method of studying motions as a part of better methods leading to the one best way to do work, was new to Taylor. His work on human element in work led to interest in the psychological bases of organized human activity and Gilbreth found an ideal partner in his wife, Lillian Gilbreth. His understanding of human sciences was enriched by the assistance he gave to Lillian Gilbreth in preparing the study The Psychology of Management, the thesis for her Doctorate at the University of California. Frank Gilbreth can be given credit as the first industrial engineer, whose grounding in human sciences is very deep.

Gilbreth aimed in his lectures and discourses to demonstrate that if young men going into industry and commerce and other fields were to be successful applicants of the new science of management, they must have in their earlier years an introductory formal training with particular reference to the human aspects of the problems they would handling. As a part of his focus on human element and human behaviour at work, Gilbreth also investigated fatigue, its causes and the means of eliminating it.

Urwick and Brech aptly conclude their essay on Gilbreth with the statement, “Gilbreth must be considered the pioneer of the function of personnel management.” Gilbreth was intensely interested in the human aspects of industry, not in a superficial sense of being “anxious for the welfare of the worker,” but in the more solid sense of realising that management cannot be fully effective unless the human beings who are the major element in its work are appropriately studied and their work is rationally planned and directed.


The article is a summarized version of “Frank Bunker Gilbreth (1868-1924)” in the book The Making of Scientific Management, Volume I, Thirteen Pioneers, by L. Urwick and Brech, E.F.L, Sir Issac Pitman and Sons Ltd. London, First published in 1944, Reprint of 1966, pp.126-47.