Biography

Gilbreth, born in Freeport, Maine, attended Baton English High School and although only an average student, he passed the entrance exam for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His aptitudes were technical rather than academic, so he became an apprentice bricklayer.

Gilbreth, the most entertaining of the founders of "scientific management", formed his own major construction company and patented several essential innovations, including an advanced scaffold design which aided his aim to reduce fatigue at work.

He was obsessive about workers wasting their efforts and one of his major contributions to scientific management was the elimination of unnecessary work movement, termed "motion study".  Among the tools he used to achieve this objective was photography.

As for the bigger picture of the organisation of work, he introduced "flow charts", which again eliminated wasted effort at plant level and facilitated planning when used in conjunction with Gantt Charts.

Before his early death he made further inventions for people disabled during World War I, including St Dunstan's, the British charity for blind servicemen.

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