Gilbreth, Inc. was the early

management consulting Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...

and

industrial engineering Industrial engineering (IE) is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, an ...

firm of

Frank Bunker Gilbreth Frank Bunker Gilbreth (July 7, 1868 – June 14, 1924) was an American engineer, consultant, and author known as an early advocate of scientific management and a pioneer of time and motion study, and is perhaps best known as the father and ...

and his wife

Lillian Moller Gilbreth Lillian Evelyn Gilbreth (; May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) was an American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator who was an early pioneer in applying psychology to time and motion study, time-and-motion studies. She was d ...

. It was founded as Frank B. Gilbreth, Inc., consulting engineers, in 1911. Lillian renamed it Gilbreth, Inc. after Frank's death in 1924. The firm's methodology focused on efficiency through a "Time and Motion" approach, better known as motion studies. Its analysis and reports included reduction of effort and fatigue, with precursors to ergonomics. The resulting recommendations focused on "one best way," an approach at odds with the later

quality improvement Total Quality management (TQM), ensures that an organization, product, or service consistently performs as intended, as opposed to Quality Management, which focuses on work process and procedure standards. It has four main components: quality pla ...

movement. The Gilbreth approach also diverged from

Taylorism Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...

, another early business/work efficiency model, primarily in its consideration of human factors. Gilbreth Inc.'s innovations were largely due to the marriage of engineering and industrial psychology reflected from its founders, who were respective experts in these fields. In 1904 the firm moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, in 1912 to

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

, and in 1919 to

Montclair, New Jersey Montclair is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a commercial and cultural hub of North Jersey and a diverse ...

. The company continued until Lillian Gilbreth's retirement in the 1960s.

References

External links

Consulting firms established in 1895 Companies based in New Jersey 1895 establishments in Massachusetts {{US-company-stub