Building Supervisory Skills through TWI Methods

By: Lloyd Johnson

With the threat of world war in the late 1930s, it became apparent that the demand for soldiers and military equipment would be greater than anything we had ever experienced as a nation. A completely new approach to training new, unskilled manufacturing workers would be needed to meet this demand. In 1940, the US Government established the Training Within Industry Service to meet the challenge. TWI developed methods to build supervisory skills that caused productivity to skyrocket. Aircraft and shipbuilding output reached record levels. But by late 1944 with the end of war in sight, orders began to decline. And many of those returning from war already had supervision skills, so these TWI methods were quickly set aside in the US and remained “lost” for almost 60 years.

Today, manufacturing is playing a leading role in the nation’s economic recovery by adding 504,000 jobs between February 2010 and October 2012. (Economic Policy Institute, article #351, Feb 2013). Once again, manufacturers are turning to supervisory skills as a way to increase their productivity and competitive edge. Recent studies show that a few basic skills, practiced by first-line supervision, are essential to achieving these improvements. Those manufacturers who transition to a “lean enterprise” credit their success to skilled supervisors and team leaders. Best of all, these skills can be learned through applying the TWI methods.

TWI has three specific job training methods for manufacturing supervisors and team leaders -- job relations, job instruction, and job methods. Each method is learned during a ten-hour workshop that teaches practical supervision skills that can be put to use immediately.

Job Relations (JR) teaches supervision how to treat people as individuals and effectively deal with human-relation problems rather than ignoring them. This skill reduces workforce conflict and improves behavior and morale.

Job Instruction (JI) teaches supervision how to plan workforce training, how to break down specific jobs for instruction, and how to effectively train workers to do the job safely, correctly, and conscientiously. This skill reduces the need for retraining and improves workforce quality and output.

Job Methods (JM) teaches supervision how to break down jobs into a series of steps and how to make simple changes that improve manufacturing flow. They learn to question why a step is done and whether it could be eliminated, combined with something else, rearranged for better flow, or simplified to make it easier to do. This skill improves and often shortens processes.

Taken together, these three workshops help supervision develop the skills they need to handle workforce problems, provide effective job training, and make process improvements.

Several companies in the Southern Tier have already discovered the benefits of applying TWI methods. Astrocom Electronics, Audiosears, Borg-Warner, C&D Assembly, CAFUSA, Cameron Fabricating, Custom Electronics, Hardinge, Kennedy Valve, Transonic Systems, Silicon Carbide Products, Standard Printed Circuits, VMR Electronics and others have used increased supervision skills to improve their workforce, increase productivity, and become more competitive. They have “found” the lost TWI methods and rediscovered that they work!

AM&T stands ready to assist other companies in the Southern Tier with discovering this “lost” approach and reaping the benefits of TWI.  For more information about AM&T’s TWI workshops or to schedule a meeting to discuss the potential benefits to your organization, contact Kim Cunningham at 607-725-1225

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7313/8055/8312/2013-10.pdf

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