Standard Work At Twi

Why Standard Work is not Standard: Training Within Industry Provides an Answer
Jim Huntzinger

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f you are working on a lean conversion, but have not heard of Training Within Industry (TWI), you most likely will soon. Training Within Industry, “without question … the most successful corporate training programs in the history of the United States,” had its first heyday during World War II.1After the war it became an unsung part of the Toyota Production System (TPS). Now it is being reborn in North America to help boost and hold gains from process kaizen. Unfortunately, Americans saw TWI as a war program, not as a permanent workplace practice. TWI began fading from the American scene before the end of World War II, as soon as victory seemed assured. All along, managementfoot-dragging had been the major obstacle to TWI implementation, perhaps because grass-roots attention to how work was done tended to stir questioning of management in general. After the war, TWI was introduced into Japan along with quality methods. Japanese industry, eager to learn from the industrial base which had defeated them, quickly made it a staple of their industrial training. By stabilizing andstandardizing work, TWI helped improve quality in prac-

tice by removing much of the human variation from work processes. At Toyota, Taiichi Ohno and others recognized that the TWI “J-Programs,” described in the box copy, greatly aided process improvement. They became embedded in the Toyota Production System. Sixty years later, TWI cards translated from Japanese back into English still read almostas they did during World War II. Although TWI was only one of many influences shaping TPS, it has been one underestimated in the West, so it is beginning to draw renewed interest. Today many companies implementing lean methods are also working to create a

In Brief
Training Within Industries, rooted in training programs going back at least 100 years, is a well-proven methodology that has longbeen a “hidden part” of the Toyota Production System. Using TWI JPrograms, people skilled in describing work, instructing work, and sustaining worker relations can develop and hold standard work. Inability to hold standard work is one of the major reasons why lean initiatives stagnate instead of progressing on toward autonomous, daily improvement. TWI is being re-born in the United States, and afew companies are beginning to show remarkable results from it.
7 Fourth Issue 2006

Training Within Industries: The TWI J-Programs
At the beginning of World War II, quickly training “green” workers in skilled industrial jobs was high priority. To become Rosie the Riveter, Rosie needed to learn skills fast. TWI administrators created robust methods of training — three programs, each completewith a training manual that was exactly scripted — and that had been thoroughly tested in actual manufacturing plants. Each of the J-Programs (J meant “Job”) was delivered in its standard and repeatable form to others who, in turn, repeated the process — delivered it in its standard and repeatable form. This train-thetrainer approach quickly deployed instruction with a “reasonable” level of quality.Scripting was exact because TWI leaders realized that those giving instruction would have varying levels of experience. 1. Job Instruction (JI) was the TWI J-Program rolled out first. Training was the most immediate need. The Job Instruction card, shown below, was directly based on Charles Allen’s 4-Step training method, which dated from early in the 20th century. The objective of Job Instructionwas to teach supervisors how to develop a well-trained workforce. If they are skilled in instruction, supervisors can reduce defects, rejects, rework, accidents, and damage to tools and equipment. But if supervisors are not skilled in instruction, no matter how knowledgeable or skilled they are in the work itself, they cannot not effectively pass it on to others. Human errors go unchecked and...