By the end of World War II, about 1.75 million workers had received certification in Training Within Industry (TWI). The method, which gives vital skills to front-line supervisors, was originally created to provide quick training to civilians who would then step into the jobs left vacated by soldiers in the private sector. The idea was to deliver, among other things, a more skilled workforce, a focus on continuous improvement and better relations between supervisors and their workers. Most of those certified were the crucial few, such as technicians in critical skill jobs and supervisors charged with ensuring that others performed a huge amount of work properly.

After the war, TWI was all but abandoned in the United States. One theory for the training method's disappearance throughout the U.S. after World War II is that North American industry faced little serious competition in 1945, according to Superfactory.com.

"With no competition to an efficient industry, few saw the need to continue to improve. At the same time, foreign industries had been decimated," Superfactory says.

Now North American industry again faces serious competition.

"Today . . . TWI is enjoying something of a resurgence in the U.S. among proponents of lean," IndustryWeek reported in June.

TWI consists of a concentrated set of standardized programs addressing the essential skills needed by supervisors, team leaders and anyone leading others indirectly, according to the TWI Institute.

The program is composed of three primary skill-based training programs, collectively referred to as "J" programs: Job Instruction (JI), Job Methods (JM) and Job Relations (JR).

Job Instruction — Teaches supervisors and experienced workers how to instruct the people doing their jobs. Skilled in instruction, supervisors can develop a well-trained workforce, resulting in reduced defects, less scrap and rework, fewer accidents and less tool and equipment damage. (Original manual)

Job Methods — Teaches workers to evaluate their efficiency objectively and to evaluate improvements methodically. This can help produce greater quantities of quality products in less time by making the best use of people, machines and materials. It's kind of like the kaizen component. (Original manual)

Job Relations — Teaches supervisors how to get the facts, weigh them, make the decision, take action and check results when a problem arises. Simply put, it helps supervisors improve their ability to work with people — effectively and fairly — promotes teamwork and emphasizes the lesson, "People must be treated as individuals." (Original manual)

A fourth program, called Program Development (PD), comes into play with TWI. PD is described by Superfactory as a "meta-course" that teaches management "how to develop a training and improvement program."

The TWI Institute and the TWI Service Web sites also describe Job Safety (JS), which focuses on environmental health and safety and leverages the skills learned in the three "J" programs. Developed in Japan and not part of the original TWI program, the JS program teaches supervisors how to analyze the chain of events leading to accidents and hazardous situations and to identify and remedy root causes.

"TWI helps people bypass their emotional reluctance to conform to a standard way of doing things — Standard Work," according to Jim Huntzinger, president of the Lean Accounting Summit, at the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. "The TWI J-programs let people willingly enter a behavioral environment that they would not venture into before."

After WWII, TWI trainers made their way to war-torn Europe and then Asia, as "the defeated countries needed to establish new industry but to reject the old culture."

"It was especially well-received in Japan, where TWI formed the basis of the kaizen culture in industry," Superfactory says.

Indeed, TWI fit into the Toyota Production System (TPS) particularly well. And to this day, Toyota Motor Co. still uses critical aspects of the training method.

"TWI-like practices remain elements of the interlocking human support that constitutes a TPS work organization," Huntzinger wrote in a 2006 article titled Why Standard Work is not Standard: Training Within Industry Provides an Answer.

In North America, a handful of companies are revisiting TWI, including Energizer Battery Co., where TWI is "in pilot mode" at a few locations. The battery producer has already seen positive early results, including "a 70 percent decrease in one defect," according to IndustryWeek.

"TWI, even though it was originally developed to focus on the supervisor-worker interface on the shop floor, has evolved into both a practice and a philosophy that moves people and organizations forward by a 'learn by doing' approach and attitude," Huntzinger wrote. "Giving people and their organization the ability to establish standards, sustain improvements made, and then springboard to an ever-higher level of practice and learning. TWI is an elemental foundation of this ability."

Resources

Training Within Industry
Superfactory.com

Training Within Industry: Everything Old is New Again
by Jill Jusko
IndustryWeek, June 1, 2008

Why Standard Work is not Standard: Training Within Industry Provides an Answer
by Jim Huntzinger
Target Magazine (AME.org), Vol. 22, No. 4, Q4 2006

The TWI Institute

TWI Overview (PowerPoint presentation)
The TWI Institute, 2008

Training Within Industry Service
TrainingWithinIndustry.net