TWI Case Studies

Introduction

This is the story about the rebirth of the Training Within Industry (TWI) programs in the United States. An earlier book, Training Within Industry: The Foundation of Lean, discussed TWI, its creation and use during World War II, and its potential use today. After the war, the TWI programs were given to the Japanese and they have continued to use TWI and its derived concepts, providing the Japanese with the same efficiency benefits that the Allied Forces enjoyed during the 1940s. In fact, TWI has become so embedded in some Japanese companies that many of their employees are unaware of its origin in the United States.

As a consultant who devotes his practice entirely to these programs, I had been thinking about writing a book of TWI ...