Training Within Industry (TWI) –

The Foundation of Standardized

Work & Continuous Improvement

Contributed by Allan Ung on January 9, 2015 in Operations & Supply

Chain

In September 1990, my colleague and I

participated in a technical training program for

instructors held at the Panasonic Overseas

Training Center and the Production Engineering

College in Osaka, Japan for a period of two

months.

Waiting for the Shinkansen bound for Osaka

During that time, we were newly hired technical training instructors at the Panasonic

Regional Training Center located in Singapore. Our key roles were to educate and train the

company’s supervisors, engineers and technicians within the ASEAN region in shop-floor

manufacturing excellence.

During the first week in Osaka, we attended the Introductory Training Course which was

similar to an orientation program for new hires.

From the second week onwards, the training shifted to a more technical focus. The training

program included the assembly of an electrical controller complete with wiring and final

testing; fabrication work such as filing a metallic block to achieve a desired surface flatness;

programming a Scara robot and Cartesian robot for assembly operations; delivering skills

instruction, etc.

A smile for the camera while the robot executes the program

Although those technical training practice

sessions could have easily been conducted in a

local polytechnic or university, what impressed

me was the very systematic coaching

approaches and patience demonstrated by the

Japanese instructors.

There was a very strong emphasis on getting

the techniques and skills right – something that

was missing from my secondary school

technical education in Singapore. As students

then, we could get the job done, or almost, to meet the drawing specifications, but how we

all got there were lots of variability in the techniques and from student to student.

For instance, in the filing workshop practice, we were taught how to hold a file properly

using both hands. The instructor explained that the wrist and elbow had to be parallel to

the floor throughout the filing process. That was critical as the aim of the filing skills

training was to achieve a certain surface flatness. In addition, our feet had to be positioned

at an angle of some 17 degrees from the center of our body to facilitate the filing

process. And that was not all, our upper body had to gently move back and forth in rhythm

with the horizontal movement of the arms.

In contrast with my secondary school days, the workshop instructors simply glossed over

those key points. We could hold the file any way we wanted – one hand or both hands. We

could stand in any position we preferred. I recall someone even stood with one leg because

he was feeling tired standing for half the day! What was foremost in our minds then were to

get the work assignment completed as quickly as possible.

Initially, I did not quite appreciate the training until we learned about TWI – Training

Within Industry after the workshop practice session. What the Japanese instructors

taught us were all there in the TWI Job Instruction program. As summarized in the Job

Instruction card below, there are four systematic steps on how to get ready to coach as well

as how to deliver the coaching.

TWI Job Instruction Pocket Card

By simply following the four steps, supervisors can be better assured of a job that will be

done correctly, safely and conscientiously by production operators. Hence, TWI is the

foundation of Standard Work in the journey to achieving the vision of a Lean enterprise.

As we all know, standard work is important in ensuring process stability and it also serves as

a baseline for kaizen or continuous improvement.

One of my key takeaways was the Job Breakdown where the trainer identifies:

1. the important steps of a task or process,

2. the key points such as quality and safety aspects, and

3. reasons for the key points.

Job Breakdown Sheet highlighting the Important Steps, Key Points & Reasons

A few of my clients have informed me that after completing a TWI workshop, one of their

goals is to apply the Job Breakdown structure to enhance their company’s Quality

Manual. They realize that their company’s ISO9000-based document control is not

necessarily based on the original intent of the TWI programs but was just developed for the

sake of certification.

One advantage of the ‘Important Steps’ (or ‘Major Steps’) is that by organizing a coaching

session around some key steps, it helps the trainees to focus on the significant areas of the

job and facilitates them to learn quickly.

In the real world, operators often do not understand what they are doing. Doing work by

simply following the what’s and how’s in many poorly written SOPs without understanding

the why’s is one of the reasons we have waste in our production processes and a lack of

innovative ideas from employees. How often have you come across SOPs that were written

from the user’s perspective?

Another important area of TWI application is in Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

. In the deployment of autonomous maintenance, operators have to perform the equipment

cleaning, lubrication, inspection and bolt tightening in the right way. Just exactly how

much lubrication is required when the SOP says “apply lightly”, and how tight should a

loose bolt be tightened without damaging the internal threads? TWI techniques will go a

long way to eliminate these issues. In addition, one-point lessons can be made sharper with

the understanding and application of the TWI system.

In fact, TWI is not new. TWI was established in 1940 in the United States by the National

Defense Advisory Committee. Although the name is not as “sexy” as Lean Six Sigma, Toyota

actually adopted it in 1951 and the rest is history.

Overview of TWI

Tactical Lean and Six Sigma lose its impact over time because people do not sustain the

changes for various reasons. As Lean Six Sigma Green Belts or Black Belts, I am sure you

know what I am talking about – implementing the Control plan in a DMAIC project is one

thing, but sustaining it is quite another.

Today, as Lean practitioners revisit TWI, we begin to see that it is the answer to the missing

link in Lean implementation – translating Lean Thinking into a positive and continuous

improvement culture, standardized work and a safe workplace by providing a systematic

approach to sustain changes and continuously improve by:

showing respect for people by treating each person as an individual

creating ownership for people to maintain standard work

indoctrinating people into an “improvement” frame of mind

teaching people how to identify opportunities for improving their jobs, and

showing people how to get these ideas into practice right away

TWI Job Instruction workshop in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

TWI Workshop in Manila, Philippines

TWI Job Instruction Workshop in Singapore

Often referred to as the “Roots of Lean”, TWI is a leadership development program

designed to help the frontline supervisor and team leader provide proper training and

assuring this training is effective in helping employees do their jobs correctly and efficiently.

The TWI program has three components:

Job Instruction Training (JI) - Teaches supervisors how to quickly train

employees to do a job correctly, safely, and conscientiously

Job Methods Training (JM) - Teaches supervisors how to continuously improve

the way jobs are done

Job Relations Training (JR) - Teaches supervisors how to develop and maintain

positive employee relations to prevent problems from happening and how to

effectively resolve conflicts that arise

Companies that have implemented TWI have reported improvements of 25% and more in

increased production, reduced training time, reduced scrap and reduced labor-hours.

If you currently face issues trying to stabilize your processes, reduce defects, reduce safety

incidents, improve autonomous maintenance skills, build capability of your coaches,

improve training productivity, and tap into your employees’ ideas, do give the TWI

programs a thought.

About Allan Ung

Allan Ung is a management consultant at Operational Excellence Consulting , a consultancy that focuses

on maximizing customer value and minimizing wastes through Lean Management. He is also a seller at

Flevy. View his documents here: OEConsulting .

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