Henry Gantt
Encyclopedia
Henry Laurence Gantt, A.B., M.E. (1861 – 23 November 1919) was an American mechanical engineer and management consultant who is most famous for developing the Gantt chart
in the 1910s.
These Gantt charts were employed on major infrastructure projects including the Hoover Dam
and Interstate highway system and continue to be an important tool in project management
.
. He graduated from McDonogh School
in 1878 and then went on to Stevens Institute of Technology
in New Jersey
.
He then worked as a teacher and draughtsman before becoming a mechanical engineer. In 1887, he joined Frederick W. Taylor in applying scientific management principles to their work at Midvale Steel
and Bethlehem Steel
—working there with Taylor until 1893. In his later career as a management consultant—following the invention of the Gantt chart—he also designed the 'task and bonus' system of wage payment and additional measurement methods worker efficiency and productivity
.
In 1916, influenced by Thorsten Veblen he set up the New Machine, an association which sought to apply the criteria of industrial efficiency to the political process.
Henry Gantt is listed under Stevens Institute of Technology
alumni.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
(ASME) awards an annual medal in honor of Henry Laurence Gantt.
is the following:
s could quickly know whether production was on schedule, ahead of schedule, or behind schedule. Modern project management software includes this critical function even now.
Gantt (1903) describes two types of balances:
Gantt gives an example with orders that will require many days to complete. The daily balance has rows for each day and columns for each part or each operation. At the top of each column is the amount needed. The amount entered in the appropriate cell is the number of parts done each day and the cumulative total for that part. Heavy horizontal lines indicate the starting date and the date that the order should be done. According to Gantt, the graphical daily balance is "a method of scheduling and recording work". In this 1903 article, Gantt also describes the use of:
In his 1916 book "Work, Wages, and Profits" Gantt explicitly discusses scheduling
, especially in the job shop environment. He proposes giving to the foreman each day an "order of work" that is an ordered list of jobs to be done that day. Moreover, he discusses the need to coordinate activities to avoid "interferences". However, he also warns that the most elegant schedules created by planning offices are useless if they are ignored, a situation that he observed.
In his 1919 book "Organizing for Work" Gantt gives two principles for his charts:
Gantt shows a progress chart that indicates for each month of the year, using a thin horizontal line, the number of items produced during that month. In addition, a thick horizontal line indicates the number of items produced during the year. Each row in the chart corresponds to an order for parts from a specific contractor, and each row indicates the starting month and ending month of the deliveries. It is the closest thing to the Gantt charts typically used today in scheduling systems, though it is at a higher level than machine scheduling.
Gantt’s machine record chart and man record chart are quite similar, though they show both the actual working time for each day and the cumulative working time for a week. Each row of the chart corresponds to an individual machine or operator. These charts do not indicate which tasks were to be done, however.
A novel method of displaying interdependencies of processes to increase visibility of production schedules was invented in 1896 by Karol Adamiecki
, which was similar to the one defined by Gantt in 1903. However, Adamiecki did not publish his works in a language popular in the West
; hence Gantt was able to popularize a similar method, which he developed around the years 1910–1915, and the solution became attributed to Gantt. With minor modifications, what originated as the Adamiecki's chart is now more commonly referred to as the Gantt Chart.
Gantt chart
A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts...
in the 1910s.
These Gantt charts were employed on major infrastructure projects including the Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President...
and Interstate highway system and continue to be an important tool in project management
Project management
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end , undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value...
.
Biography
Gantt was born in Calvert County, MarylandCalvert County, Maryland
Calvert County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. It occupies the Calvert Peninsula which is bordered on the east by the Chesapeake Bay and on the west by the Patuxent River. Calvert County is part of the Southern Maryland region. Calvert County's residents are among the highest...
. He graduated from McDonogh School
McDonogh School
McDonogh School is a private, coeducational, K-12, college-preparatory school founded in Owings Mills, Maryland, USA in 1873.- History :The school was established near Baltimore, Maryland in 1873 and funded by the estate of John McDonogh, a former Baltimore resident, who died in 1850...
in 1878 and then went on to Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...
in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
He then worked as a teacher and draughtsman before becoming a mechanical engineer. In 1887, he joined Frederick W. Taylor in applying scientific management principles to their work at Midvale Steel
Midvale Steel
Midvale Steel was a succession of steel-making corporations whose flagship plant was the Midvale Steel Works at Nicetown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which operated from 1867 until 1976...
and Bethlehem Steel
Bethlehem Steel
The Bethlehem Steel Corporation , based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was once the second-largest steel producer in the United States, after Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based U.S. Steel. After a decline in the U.S...
—working there with Taylor until 1893. In his later career as a management consultant—following the invention of the Gantt chart—he also designed the 'task and bonus' system of wage payment and additional measurement methods worker efficiency and productivity
Labor productivity
Workforce productivity is the amount of goods and services that a worker produces in a given amount of time. It is one of several types of productivity that economists measure. Workforce productivity can be measured for a firm, a process, an industry, or a country...
.
In 1916, influenced by Thorsten Veblen he set up the New Machine, an association which sought to apply the criteria of industrial efficiency to the political process.
Henry Gantt is listed under Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...
alumni.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is a professional body, specifically an engineering society, focused on mechanical engineering....
(ASME) awards an annual medal in honor of Henry Laurence Gantt.
Work
Henry Gantt's legacy to production managementProduction management
Theatrical production management is a sub-division of stagecraft. The production management team is responsible for realizing the visions of the producer and the director or choreographer within constraints of technical possibility...
is the following:
- The Gantt chartGantt chartA Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts...
: Still accepted as an important management tool today, it provides a graphic schedule for the planning and controlling of work, and recording progress towards stages of a project. The chart has a modern variation, Program Evaluation and Review TechniqueProgram Evaluation and Review TechniqueThe Program ' Evaluation and Review Technique, commonly abbreviated PERT, is a statistical tool, used in project management, that is designed to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project...
(PERT). - Industrial Efficiency: Industrial efficiency can only be produced by the application of scientific analysis to all aspects of the work in progress. The industrial management role is to improve the system by eliminating chance and accidents.
- The Task And Bonus System: He linked the bonus paid to managers to how well they taught their employees to improve performance.
- The social responsibility of business: He believed that businesses have obligations to the welfare of the society in which they operate.
Gantt charts
Gantt created many different types of charts. He designed his charts so that foremen or other supervisorSupervisor
A supervisor, foreperson, team leader, overseer, cell coach, facilitator, or area coordinator is a manager in a position of trust in business...
s could quickly know whether production was on schedule, ahead of schedule, or behind schedule. Modern project management software includes this critical function even now.
Gantt (1903) describes two types of balances:
- the "man’s record", which shows what each worker should do and did do, and
- the "daily balance of work", which shows the amount of work to be done and the amount that is done.
Gantt gives an example with orders that will require many days to complete. The daily balance has rows for each day and columns for each part or each operation. At the top of each column is the amount needed. The amount entered in the appropriate cell is the number of parts done each day and the cumulative total for that part. Heavy horizontal lines indicate the starting date and the date that the order should be done. According to Gantt, the graphical daily balance is "a method of scheduling and recording work". In this 1903 article, Gantt also describes the use of:
- "production cards" for assigning work to each operator and recording how much was done each day.
In his 1916 book "Work, Wages, and Profits" Gantt explicitly discusses scheduling
Scheduling (production processes)
Scheduling is an important tool for manufacturing and engineering, where it can have a major impact on the productivity of a process. In manufacturing, the purpose of scheduling is to minimize the production time and costs, by telling a production facility when to make, with which staff, and on...
, especially in the job shop environment. He proposes giving to the foreman each day an "order of work" that is an ordered list of jobs to be done that day. Moreover, he discusses the need to coordinate activities to avoid "interferences". However, he also warns that the most elegant schedules created by planning offices are useless if they are ignored, a situation that he observed.
In his 1919 book "Organizing for Work" Gantt gives two principles for his charts:
- one, measure activities by the amount of time needed to complete them;
- two, the space on the chart can be used to represent the amount of the activity that should have been done in that time.
Gantt shows a progress chart that indicates for each month of the year, using a thin horizontal line, the number of items produced during that month. In addition, a thick horizontal line indicates the number of items produced during the year. Each row in the chart corresponds to an order for parts from a specific contractor, and each row indicates the starting month and ending month of the deliveries. It is the closest thing to the Gantt charts typically used today in scheduling systems, though it is at a higher level than machine scheduling.
Gantt’s machine record chart and man record chart are quite similar, though they show both the actual working time for each day and the cumulative working time for a week. Each row of the chart corresponds to an individual machine or operator. These charts do not indicate which tasks were to be done, however.
A novel method of displaying interdependencies of processes to increase visibility of production schedules was invented in 1896 by Karol Adamiecki
Karol Adamiecki
-External links:* * *...
, which was similar to the one defined by Gantt in 1903. However, Adamiecki did not publish his works in a language popular in the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
; hence Gantt was able to popularize a similar method, which he developed around the years 1910–1915, and the solution became attributed to Gantt. With minor modifications, what originated as the Adamiecki's chart is now more commonly referred to as the Gantt Chart.
See also
- Henry Laurence Gantt MedalHenry Laurence Gantt MedalThe Henry Laurence Gantt Medal was established in 1929 by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for "distinguished achievement in management and service to the community."- Winners :* 2000 - Paul Soros* 2001 - Roy Huffington...
- Human factorsHuman factorsHuman factors science or human factors technologies is a multidisciplinary field incorporating contributions from psychology, engineering, industrial design, statistics, operations research and anthropometry...
- Karol AdamieckiKarol Adamiecki-External links:* * *...
- Scheduling (disambiguation)
- Gantt chartGantt chartA Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts...
Publications
Gantt published several articles and books, a selection:- 1916. Work, Wages, and Profits, second edition, Engineering Magazine Co., New York.
- 1919. Organizing for Work, Harcourt, Brace, and Howe, New York.