United States Department of War War Manpower Commission Conscripted US Army Matériel

The
Training Within Industry (TWI) service was created by the United States Department of War,
running from 1940 to 1945 within the War Manpower Commission. The purpose was to provide consulting
services to war-related industries whose personnel were being conscriptedinto the US Army at the same
time the War Department was issuing orders for additional matériel. It was apparent that the shortage of
trained and skilled personnel at precisely the time they were needed most would impose a hardship on
those industries, and that only improved methods of job training would address the shortfall [1]. By the
end of World War II, over 1.6 million workers in over 16,500 plants had received a certification.
The four basic training programs (10-hour sessions) developed by TWI were developed in an emergency
situation by experts on loan from private industry. Because of the intensity of the situation, a large number
of experimental methods were tried and discarded. This resulted in a distilled, concentrated set of
programs. Each of the 10-hour programs had introductory programs called "Appreciation Sessions" that
were used to sell the programs to top management and introduce the programs to middle management of
a company. Each of these 10-hour Session programs had 'Train-the-Trainer' programs and handbooks
called "Institute Conductor's Manual" for the master trainers.
The TWI Service also developed a number of "Staff Only" training programs to support staff development
and to improve the implementation success.
The TWI trainers had to be invited to a factory in order to present their material. In order to market the
service, they developed the Five Needs of the Supervisor: every supervisor needs to have Knowledge of
the Work, Knowledge of Responsibility, Skill in Instructing, Skill in Improving Methods, and Skill in
Leading. Each program was based on Charles Allen's 4-point method of Preparation, Presentation,
Application, and Testing.
The 10-hour Sessions were:
 Job Instruction (JI) - a course that taught trainers (supervisors and experienced workers) to train
inexperienced workers and get them "up to speed" faster. The instructors were taught to break down
jobs into closely defined steps, show the procedures while explaining the Key Points and the reasons
for the Key Points, then watch the student attempt under close coaching, and finally to gradually
wean the student from the coaching. The course emphasized the credo, "If the worker hasn't learned,
the instructor hasn't taught".
 Job Methods (JM) - a course that taught workers to objectively evaluate the efficiency of their jobs
and to methodically evaluate and suggest improvements. The course also worked with a job
breakdown, but students were taught to analyze each step and determine if there were sufficient
reason to continue to do it in that way by asking a series of pointed questions. If they determined
some step could be done better by Eliminating, Combining, Rearranging, or Simplifying, they were to
develop and apply the new method by selling it to the "boss" and co-workers, obtaining approval
based on Safety, Quality, Quantity, and Cost, standardizing the new method, and giving "credit where
credit is due."
 Job Relations (JR) - a course that taught supervisors to deal with workers effectively and fairly. It
emphasized the lesson, "People Must Be Treated As Individuals".
 Program Development (PD) - the meta-course that taught those with responsibility for the training
function to assist the line organization in solving production problems through training.
There was also a short-lived course that taught union personnel to work effectively with management.
[edit]Relationship to Lean
Although the TWI program funding for application of the programs in the USA by the government ended in
1945, The US government did fund the introduction to the war-torn nations of Europe and Asia. Several
private groups continued to provide TWI in the US and abroad. Channing Dooley, Walter Dietz, Mike
Kane and Bill Conover (collectively known as the four horsemen) continued the development of the 'J'
programs by establishing the TWI Foundation. This group was responsible for continuing the spread of
TWI throughout Europe and Asia. The Director of one of the district offices established TWI, Inc., and was
hired by the US Government to provide TWI training in Japan. It was especially well-received in Japan,
where TWI formed the basis of the kaizen culture in industry. Kaizen, known by such names as Quality
Circles in the West, was successfully harnessed by Toyota Motor Corporation in conjunction with
the Lean or Just In Time principles of Taiichi Ohno. In fact, in the Foreword to Dinero's book "Training
Within Industry" (2005), John Shook relates a story in which a Toyota trainer brought out an old copy of a
TWI service manual to prove to him that American workers at NUMMI could be taught using the
"Japanese" methods used at Toyota. Thus, TWI was the forerunner of what is today regarded as a
Japanese creation.
TWI had a direct impact on the development and use of kaizen and Standard Work at Toyota. These
fundamental elements are embedded within the functional system at Toyota and Job Instruction is taught
and used within Toyota today. The kaizen methodology is a direct descendant of Job Methods, and most
likely Job Relations had an impact on the development and function of the Team and Group Leader
structure in Toyota.
Many of the points above should look familiar to students of W. Edwards Deming: the PDCA style of the
training programs, the JI litany about failure being on the shoulders of the instructor, and even the JI and
JM methods themselves. Deming lectures frequently included statements similar to the JR slogan,
"People Must Be Treated As Individuals."
In Dinero's introduction he goes as far as saying that one of the key differences between more & less
successful Lean Projects was their focus on the "people element" during implementation.
[edit]Why it disappeared from the United States

One theory for the disappearance of TWI within the U.S. after the war is the simple fact that North
American industry faced little serious competition in 1945. With no competition to an efficient industry, few
saw the need to continue to improve. At the same time, foreign industries had been decimated. The
defeated countries needed to establish new industry but to reject the old culture. For that purpose, TWI
trainers were brought to Europe by the occupying forces there, and to Japan by MacArthur during the
occupation.
Another theory is that after the war, everyone went back to "business as usual": "old" workforce, returning
from War, moved back to their previous jobs, without any idea of "new culture", while most of the TWI
trained people went back to their previous jobs; this caused TWI culture to "fade away" almost
instantaneously.

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[edit]Why it disappeared from the United States

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