Therblig

Therbligs are the basic elemental units of human motion identified in time and motion studies, serving as a standardized system to analyze and optimize work processes for efficiency and reduced fatigue. Developed by industrial engineers Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth, the term "therblig" is a deliberate reversal of "Gilbreth" with a "th" appended, reflecting their pioneering contributions to scientific management in the early 20th century.^[1][2][3] Introduced formally around 1915, therbligs emerged from the Gilbreths' innovations in motion study, building on Frank Gilbreth's earlier work in bricklaying efficiency and evolving through techniques like micro-motion filming and chronocyclegraphs to break down tasks into their smallest components.^[1] The system comprises 18 therbligs—such as search, select, grasp, transport loaded, position, assemble, use, rest, hold, and plan—each assigned mnemonic symbols and colors for charting on simultaneous-motion (simo) charts, allowing precise elimination of unnecessary movements.^[2][3] The Gilbreths' therblig methodology revolutionized industrial engineering by emphasizing qualitative motion analysis over mere time measurement, influencing ergonomics, production management, and worker welfare—particularly in applications like rehabilitation for disabled soldiers during World War I.^[1] Their work, detailed in publications such as Motion Study for the Crippled Soldier (1915–1916) and posthumous articles in Management and Administration (1924), underscored therbligs' role in standardizing tasks to minimize strain and boost productivity, with lasting impacts on modern workflow optimization.^[1][3]

Fundamentals

Definition and Terminology

Therbligs represent the 18 fundamental elements of human motion, serving as the basic building blocks for dissecting and analyzing manual tasks in time and motion studies. These elements allow researchers and engineers to break down complex work activities into their smallest indivisible components, enabling precise identification of inefficiencies and opportunities for optimization. Developed as part of scientific management principles, therbligs provide a standardized framework for evaluating worker movements, focusing on both physical actions and associated delays to enhance overall process efficiency.^[4] The term "therblig" originates from the surname of its creators, Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth, renowned pioneers in industrial engineering. It is essentially "Gilbreth" spelled backwards, with the letters "th" transposed to the beginning, a deliberate construction intended to signify ownership and attribution to the Gilbreths' contributions. This naming convention was introduced to emphasize the originality of their motion analysis system, distinguishing it from broader time study methods like those of Frederick Taylor.^[4] The primary purpose of therbligs is to minimize unnecessary or fatiguing motions in workplaces, thereby improving productivity and reducing worker fatigue through detailed dissection of tasks. By categorizing every motion into one of these elemental units, analysts can eliminate redundant actions, streamline sequences, and design more ergonomic work methods. This approach, refined by the Gilbreths between 1908 and 1924, laid the groundwork for modern ergonomics and lean manufacturing practices.^[4]

Role in Motion Analysis

Therbligs serve as the foundational units in motion analysis, enabling industrial engineers to dissect complex manual tasks into their most basic components for systematic evaluation and improvement. Developed by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, this approach integrates into broader time and motion studies by providing a standardized language to record, classify, and eliminate wasteful or inefficient motions, thereby optimizing worker productivity and reducing fatigue without relying on stopwatch timing alone.^[5] Unlike pure time studies focused on duration, therbligs emphasize qualitative motion economy, allowing analysts to identify and remove unnecessary actions that contribute to overall task inefficiency.^[4] Central to therblig-based analysis are principles of motion economy, which prioritize minimizing distance traveled by body parts, shortening the time required for each motion, and lowering the physical effort involved in repetitive sequences such as grasping objects or positioning tools. These principles guide the redesign of work processes to align with natural human movements, incorporating workplace adjustments like strategic tool placement to inherently reduce motion complexity. By applying these concepts, analysts can achieve significant efficiency gains; for instance, eliminating even minor delays across repeated cycles can save hours of labor per worker weekly.^[5][6] The typical process begins with filming or visually recording a task using techniques like micro-motion study to capture detailed motion sequences. Analysts then break down the footage into individual therbligs—typically numbering 18 basic elements—assigning symbols and timings to each via tools such as simo charts, which plot simultaneous right- and left-hand activities. This decomposition facilitates quantitative and qualitative assessment, culminating in redesigned workflows that consolidate or eliminate redundant therbligs to enhance overall task flow.^[4][6]

The Elements

List of the 18 Therbligs

The 18 therbligs form the core elements of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth's motion study system, serving as the basic building blocks for analyzing and optimizing manual work processes through micromotion techniques. Each therblig represents a distinct, irreducible motion or mental process, originally identified and symbolized by the Gilbreths for use in cyclegraphs and simo-charts, where they are depicted as colored circular icons to facilitate visual notation and timing. These symbols, developed between 1911 and 1924, allow for precise recording of work cycles to minimize waste and fatigue. The following table enumerates the 18 therbligs with their standard abbreviations and descriptions of the original Gilbreth symbols.^[5][4]

Descriptions and Purposes

Therbligs represent the fundamental units of motion and mental activity in human work, each defined to capture specific actions or processes for precise analysis in motion studies. Developed by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, these elements allow for the breakdown of tasks into their atomic components, highlighting opportunities to eliminate waste and reduce fatigue. The purposes of individual therbligs focus on identifying inefficiencies, such as unnecessary searching or delays, while guidelines for qualification emphasize contextual factors like hand state, object interaction, and environmental setup in manual labor settings. Typical durations range from 0.05 to 0.85 seconds per therblig, varying by worker skill, object size, and distance, with mental therbligs like Plan often negligible unless complex.^[7][4] The following table details each of the 18 therbligs, including their core purpose, a breakdown of the motion or process involved, distinctions from similar elements, and guidelines for when a motion qualifies as that therblig in contexts like assembly or handling tasks.

Classification

Effective Therbligs

Effective therbligs represent the subset of basic motions that directly contribute to achieving the objective of a task, making them unavoidable components of efficient manual work. Developed by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth as part of their motion study methodology, these therbligs focus on productive actions that advance the work process without introducing unnecessary delays or effort. By isolating and refining these elements, analysts can streamline operations while preserving functionality.^[4][8] The nine effective therbligs, along with their primary purposes, are as follows:

• Transport Empty (Reach): Involves extending the hand or arm to locate and approach an object; essential for accessing materials or tools in the workspace, as it initiates the handling sequence.^[4]
• Transport Loaded (Move): Entails carrying an object from one location to another; critical for relocating items to the point of use or assembly, directly supporting task progression.^[4]
• Grasp: Consists of closing the fingers around an object to secure it; necessary to gain control over items for subsequent manipulation or transport.^[4]
• Release Load: Involves letting go of an object after it has been positioned or used; essential for completing the placement or separation in the work sequence.^[8]
• Pre-position: Aligns an object in preparation for the next operation with immediate utility; vital for ensuring precision in subsequent actions without rework.^[9]
• Assemble: Joins two or more parts together; fundamental for constructing products or completing sub-tasks in manufacturing processes.^[4]
• Use: Manipulates a tool or object to perform its intended function, such as operating a screwdriver; central to executing the core purpose of the work.^[4]
• Disassemble: Separates previously joined parts; required for maintenance, inspection, or reconfiguration of components during the task.^[4]
• Inspect: Visually or tactilely examines an object against a standard; indispensable for verifying quality and detecting defects to maintain output standards.^[4]
• Rest: Brief pauses to recover from fatigue or regain skill; necessary to sustain performance and prevent excessive strain.^[8]

Optimization of effective therbligs emphasizes reducing the physical demands of these motions to boost productivity and reduce worker fatigue. Key strategies include minimizing travel distances in transport empty and transport loaded therbligs through strategic workplace layout, such as arranging materials in sequential order, and combining therbligs—like integrating grasp with pre-position—via ergonomic tool design or fixtures to create fluid motion sequences. These approaches, rooted in Gilbreth's principles, can significantly enhance work economy by lowering cycle times and effort.^[4]

Ineffective Therbligs

Ineffective therbligs represent non-productive elemental motions in Gilbreth's system that fail to advance the work process, thereby increasing cycle time and operator fatigue without adding value.^[9] These motions arise from suboptimal workplace design, inefficient methods, or external factors and are targeted for reduction or elimination through principles of motion economy.^[8] The nine ineffective therbligs, along with their rationales for classification as wasteful, are as follows:

• Search: The act of visually or manually hunting for an object or tool, indicating disorganized storage or layout that prolongs task initiation.^[10]
• Find: The moment of locating the searched item, which extends unnecessary exploration time and highlights the need for predictable positioning.
• Select: Choosing one object from a group of similar items, often resulting from inadequate segregation or presentation that forces decision-making delays.^[9]
• Hold: Retaining an object in the hand without performing an action on it, consuming energy and grip strength idly while awaiting the next step.
• Position: Aligning an object in preparation for a subsequent motion without immediate utility, adding extraneous manipulation if the setup is not streamlined.^[9]
• Unavoidable Delay: Pauses caused by factors beyond the worker's control, such as machine cycles, which must be accommodated but minimized through process synchronization.^[9]
• Avoidable Delay: Preventable idle time due to poor planning or interference, directly attributable to method inefficiencies and fully eliminable.^[9]
• Plan: Mental deliberation on the sequence of actions, which interrupts physical flow and accumulates if not integrated into training or standardization.^[9]

Techniques for reducing ineffective therbligs focus on environmental and methodological improvements, such as optimizing workplace layout to eliminate search and find by fixing tool locations in predictable spots.^[8] Employing jigs, fixtures, or workholders can prevent unnecessary holds and positions, while standardizing procedures minimizes planning, delays.^[10] These approaches, derived from micromotion analysis, aim to convert ineffective elements into effective ones or remove them entirely.^[9]

Applications

Traditional Examples

One of the foundational applications of therblig analysis was the Gilbreths' examination of bricklaying, a task central to Frank Gilbreth's early career as a contractor. Traditional bricklaying required up to 18 separate motions per brick, including reaching for materials, turning the body, and stooping, which were broken down into therbligs such as Search, Grasp, Transport Empty, Position, and Release Load. By redesigning scaffolds for non-stooping access, standardizing brick packets on the wall, and optimizing material flow to eliminate unnecessary Searches and Transports, the Gilbreths reduced these to as few as 4.5 to 5 motions per brick, more than doubling productivity.^[11][12] The Gilbreths also applied therbligs to everyday personal tasks, as detailed in the 1948 memoir Cheaper by the Dozen by their children, Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. In analyzing Frank Gilbreth's morning shaving routine, the process was decomposed into a sequence of therbligs: Search (locating the razor with the eyes), Find (eye resting on the razor), Select (deciding on the tool), Grasp (fingertips touching the razor), Transport Loaded (moving the razor to the face), and Position (aligning it for use), among others like Use and Release Load. Inefficiencies arose from scattered tools requiring multiple Search and Transport therbligs; optimizations included fixed positioning of duplicates (e.g., two razors or brushes for parallel lathering and shaving) and color-coding to minimize Select and Find, reducing the overall routine from over 30 seconds to about 13 seconds—a 57% time savings per session that accumulated to hours annually.^[13][14] Early industrial adoption of therblig analysis focused on assembly lines, where the Gilbreths consulted for firms like the New England Butt Company in 1912. Using micro-motion films to record and classify therbligs in braider machinery assembly, they identified wasteful sequences like redundant Grasps and ineffective Transports due to poor workstation layout. Redesigning task distribution and tool placement eliminated these, boosting output from 11-12 machines per assembler per day to 60—a roughly 417% productivity gain, equivalent to an 80% reduction in time per unit—while similar applications in other manufacturing settings yielded significant time savings by standardizing effective therbligs like Assemble and Inspect over ineffective ones.^[11][4]

Modern Relevance

Therbligs continue to inform ergonomic design in contemporary workstations, particularly in manufacturing sectors, where they guide layouts to minimize repetitive motions and prevent strain injuries. In manufacturing maintenance tasks simulated via virtual reality, therbligs decompose operations into basic elements like grasp and transport, with ergonomic corrections improving time prediction accuracy to 97.8% compared to 68.4% without adjustments, aiding in the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders.^[15][4] In lean manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies, therbligs are integrated to streamline assembly processes in industries such as automotive and electronics, often through digitized tools like software simulations that quantify and eliminate ineffective motions. This approach aligns with waste reduction principles, enabling task optimization via simultaneous motion charts (SIMO) and supporting data-driven improvements in process variability. Studies from the 2000s and beyond demonstrate efficiency gains, such as up to four hours of weekly time savings per worker by minimizing search and transport therbligs, and cycle time reductions of approximately 12% in collaborative assembly lines.^[16][4] Emerging applications extend therbligs to human-robot collaboration (HRC) and AI-driven motion prediction, adapting the framework for simulation models in domestic and industrial settings. In HRC, therbligs classify intentions via electromyography and deep learning to allocate tasks—such as assigning holds to robots—reducing human workload by 71% of process time and improving sustainability in manufacturing. For AI, therbligs serve as primitives in video analysis models, boosting action recognition accuracy by 6-10% relative to baselines in datasets like EPIC-Kitchens, facilitating predictive simulations for robotics. However, critics note that therbligs oversimplify complex cognitive tasks, as their traditional focus on physical motions limits applicability to knowledge-based work involving planning or decision-making.^[17][18]

History

Origins and Development

The origins of therbligs trace back to the early 20th-century scientific management movement, where Frank Bunker Gilbreth sought to eliminate wasteful motions in industrial work to boost efficiency and productivity. As a self-taught engineer and construction contractor who founded Frank Gilbreth and Company in 1895, Gilbreth observed inefficiencies firsthand, particularly in bricklaying, where workers performed up to 18 unnecessary motions per brick; by 1909, he reduced this to as few as 4.5 through systematic analysis, publishing his findings in Bricklaying System.^[1] This work was motivated by the broader era of scientific management, popularized by Frederick Winslow Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), which emphasized optimizing workflows amid rapid industrialization and labor challenges in construction and manufacturing.^[1] Gilbreth first encountered Taylor in 1907 and began applying motion study principles more broadly around 1911, using early filming techniques to capture and dissect worker actions.^[1] Therbligs emerged as a formalized system from these motion studies, with Frank Gilbreth introducing the concept of elemental motion units in his pioneering micro-motion analyses starting in 1912.^[1] The term "therblig"—Gilbreth spelled backward with transposed letters—was coined to describe these basic building blocks of human motion. In a seminal 1915 paper, "Motion Study for the Crippled Soldier," co-authored with his wife Lillian, the Gilbreths outlined 16 fundamental therbligs, framing them as an "alphabet of motions" to standardize and improve work processes, including for disabled workers reintegrating into industry post-World War I.^[19] This publication, presented in the Journal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, marked the first comprehensive classification, drawing on chronocyclegraph photography developed in 1913 to visualize motion paths.^[20] Key to the development was the collaboration between Frank, whose engineering expertise drove practical innovations, and Lillian Moller Gilbreth, a psychologist who earned her PhD in 1915 and integrated human factors like fatigue and mental processes into motion analysis.^[21] Their partnership, formalized after marriage in 1904, emphasized not just mechanical efficiency but also worker well-being, distinguishing their approach from pure time-study methods. By the 1920s, the system expanded to 18 therbligs, with refinements detailed in a 1924 article in Management and Administration, reflecting ongoing tests and applications in manufacturing.^[22] This evolution solidified therbligs as a tool for dissecting complex tasks into analyzable components, directly addressing inefficiencies that plagued early industrial operations.^[4]

Legacy and Influence

The therbligs developed by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth provided a foundational framework for subsequent advancements in industrial engineering, particularly influencing the creation of Methods-Time Measurement (MTM) systems in the 1940s. MTM, pioneered by Harold B. Maynard, G.J. Stegemerten, and John L. Schwab, built directly on the Gilbreths' concept of breaking down work into elemental motions, refining the 18 therbligs into a more standardized set of basic motions with predetermined time values to enable precise work measurement without direct observation.^[23] This evolution addressed some limitations in the original therblig classification, such as inconsistencies in motion definitions, leading to MTM's widespread adoption for process optimization in manufacturing.^[24] Today, MTM systems derived from therbligs remain a core component of industrial engineering curricula, taught in universities to train professionals in efficiency analysis and lean manufacturing principles.^[25] Beyond industrial engineering, therbligs shaped critiques of Frederick Taylor's scientific management by emphasizing holistic motion economy over mere time tracking, laying groundwork for human factors engineering through a focus on reducing worker fatigue and improving workflow design.^[26] Lillian Gilbreth's motion study techniques were applied during World War II as part of her consulting for government and industry to support war production efforts while addressing worker well-being.^[27] This integration highlighted the role of motion analysis in balancing efficiency with human factors, influencing early ergonomics practices that prioritized operator capabilities in high-stakes environments. Therbligs have been critiqued for their emphasis on physical motions, with some arguing that while they include basic cognitive elements like search and plan, they provide insufficient detail for the complex cognitive processing dominant in modern knowledge work, such as advanced decision-making and problem-solving in office or creative roles. Additionally, their focus on manual movements requires adaptations for automation and digital interfaces, including interactions with software or robotic systems, as explored in extensions in contemporary research.^[28] In contemporary ergonomics, therblig principles are referenced indirectly through motion analysis standards, such as those in MTM systems, though they have become less central amid the rise of digital simulation tools and AI-driven process modeling.^[29] This shift reflects a broader evolution toward integrated human-machine systems, where therbligs serve more as a historical benchmark than a primary tool.^[6]