First edition, rare, of this pioneering work in scientific management.

The field of ‘motion study’ was developed by engineer Frank B. Gilbreth and his wife, psychologist Lillian M. Gilbreth, in order to increase the efficiency of work processes through methods that promoted the welfare of the worker by enumerating motions, as opposed to timing actions. The analysis is divided into variables of the worker (including fatigue, nutrition, training), variables of the surroundings (such as clothes, lighting, quality of material), and variables of the motion (such as cost, effectiveness, necessity). This approach differentiated the Gilbreths philosophically from Frederick Winslow Taylor alongside whose ‘time study’ their work is often cited. The couple is better known as the protagonists of the book and film Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), written by two of their twelve children.