Frank Gilbreth: Therblig Inventor, Lazy Man Advocate, and Visualization Pioneer
On this day 153 years ago, Frank Bunker Gilbreth was born. “Who?” you might ask. Along with wife Lillian, he was one half of what today we would describe as a power couple. The Gilbreths were industrial engineers who pioneered innovations including the development of motion studies. This involved the use of a hand crank 35mm camera to film the actions of workers to discover the best possible way of performing a task. Originally, Frank applied his use of time motion studies to construction but it was later applied to everything from firearm assembly to surgery.
Therbligs. Gesundheit! 🙄
No, therbligs are not the sound made when you sneeze. Nor is it an alien race from Star Trek. Therbligs was the term coined by the Gilbreths to describe any of the elemental motions used to perform any task. (Therblig is actually Gilbreth spelled backwards with the “th” transposed.) Therbligs can be described symbolically in a Simultaneous Motion (SIMO) chart and were given their own codes and colors. Therbligs and the SIMO chart are one of the earliest forms of business visualization but the Gilbreths invented another visualization tool that you are almost certainly familiar with — flowcharts.
Flowcharts 🚰📈
In a presentation to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 1921 the Gilbreth’s wrote:
The Process Chart is a device for visualizing a process as a means of improving it. Every detail of a process is more or less affected by every other detail; therefore the entire process must be presented in such form that it can be visualized all at once before any changes are made in any of its subdivisions. In any subdivision of the process under examination, any changes made without due consideration of all the decisions and all the motions that precede and follow that subdivision will ofter be found unsuited to the ultimate plan of operation.
We tend to think of visualization as being a recent development, particularly with all the data visualization tools now available, but the Gilbreths were using visualization techniques a century ago. I particularly like the above quote as it clearly indicates the need to understand a process from end-to-end prior to make any changes. Those familiar with modern process improvement will appreciate the Gilbreth’s concern for both upstream and downstream effects that may occur with a change to single step!
I doubt the Gilbreths could foresee how important their visualization technique would become and how many variations wold develop over time. Process maps, flowcharts, decision trees, activity diagrams, data flow diagrams are all related and can be traced back to the Gilbreths’ process flow chart. Kaoru Ishikawa, whose teachings informed total quality management and live on in Lean Six Sigma methodologies today, regarded flowcharts as one of the seven basic tools of quality along with scatter plots, histograms, cause-and-effect diagrams, (Ishikawa diagrams), control charts, check sheets, Pareto charts. (Shameless plug: do you need a flowchart maker for iPhone or iPad check out: try.logiflo.app and sign up to use it free.)
Lazy Men 😴
A quote attributed to Frank Gilbreth (and later to Bill Gates and Walter Chrysler) was:
“I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
Gilbreth most likely didn’t say this but he did indicate in an interview with Popular Science Monthly:
Gilbreth studied the methods of various bricklayers — the poor workmen and the best ones, and he stumbled upon an astonishing fact of great importance and significance. He found that he could learn most from the lazy man!
Most of the chance improvements in human motions that eliminate unnecessary movement and reduce fatigue have been hit upon, Gilbreth thinks, by men who were lazy — so lazy that every needless step counted.
Although an advocate for lazy men (at least when it comes to finding the least number of steps to complete a task), the same could not be said for Gilbreth.
He and Lillian had twelve children (12!) that were often subjected to experimentation to discover the best method of performing a particular task. (I strongly suspect they had a process map posted outside the bathroom documenting appropriate use in the mornings!) One of the Gilbreth’s children, Frank Bunker Jr, would go on to write a novel detailing the family’s life, Cheaper by the Dozen which was adapted into a successful movie in 1950.
Unfortunately, Frank died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 55 in 1924. His wife, Lillian, advanced the field for decades after his death continuing to provide management consulting, teaching and research. (Lillian is certainly deserving of her own article in the future.) Although Frank Gilbreth may not be a household name his legacy lives on in the tools we use today.
