Frank Gilbreth

Gilbreth's motion study is the reason warehouse engineers count reaches, steps, and touches when they design a pick station or pack bench. Starting with bricklaying, he reduced the motions needed to lay a brick from 18 to about 5 by changing scaffold height and how materials were presented. He later classified hand movements into basic units he called therbligs and filmed workers to time them. Modern slotting, golden-zone placement of fast movers, and ergonomic pack station layouts apply the same goal: cut wasted motion so each unit takes less time and effort.

• SlottingDeciding where each SKU is stored
• Units per HourUPHUnits handled in one labor hour
• Labor Management SystemLMSSoftware that tracks warehouse labor

• Lillian Gilbreth1878–1972 · Industrial psychologist and engineer
• Frederick Winslow Taylor1856–1915 · Father of scientific management
• Henry Gantt1861–1919 · Creator of the Gantt chart

• The Principles of Scientific Management1911 · Taylor's book on timed tasks and standard methods

1. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth (New World Encyclopedia) newworldencyclopedia.org
2. The Gilbreths biography (MIT) mit.edu