Answers the question: why

One of the biggest driving forces of TWI JI in a production context is that the individual employee to a higher degree will get answers to why his or her job is worth gold for the company. Karen Stenholt follows up:

"We can see on the individual employees who have been trained according to the TWI JI training method that they are doing better, focus more on their own and their colleagues' safety and follow the standards. And at the same time, they have become more conscientious about their work because they now know why the task and their efforts are important both for the customer and for the company. This means that TWI helps creating a good development in our behavior and working culture," she says.

John Vellema is the founder of the company Business Through People, an official partner with the TWI Institute in New York, USA. He teaches managers, job trainers and internal consultants how to master the tools of TWI and ensure good implementation of them. He confirms the lift that TWI can provide in terms of increased safety, quality and productivity through the focus of managers, job trainers and then employees on raising competencies and motivation.

"TWI JI is about developing and maintaining the professional skills of both managers, job trainers and employees. In the TWI JI course, we learn that 'if the learner has not learned, the trainer has not taught'", says John Vellema, explaining:

"And it is based on this mantra that we train managers and job trainers in training employees to do their jobs correctly, safely and conscientiously. In order for both managers, internal consultants and job trainers to be able to anchor TWI in the company culture, they need the support, the time and the tools to be able to influence the organization."

He refers to an American SHINGO analysis showing that 85 percent of all Lean projects fail. Therefore, Post Danmark's good effects after three months are quite unique. This is because Post Danmark has spent a lot of work on the entire preparation process. The important thing now is to maintain focus in the continued rollout and transition to daily operations. Karen Stenholt has the following to say:

"As we follow the TWI JI structure, there is a strong focus on 'why' we perform the task according to the standard. In addition, TWI JI will also greatly contribute to us collecting and processing the good improvement proposals that our employees have. In order for a standardized learning process to be meaningful and anchored, it is important that 'the silent gold' comes out of the pockets."

Requires repetition and patience

The system behind TWI JI is maintained at Post Danmark by the manager process-confirming employees three times over two months at the beginning and then quarterly. This also gives the manager a unique opportunity to talk specifically about the work processes with the individual employee and not least acknowledge the good work that the employees perform.

According to Karen Stenholt, one of the biggest challenges of working with TWI JI is that, at the beginning, employees may very well see the method as a sign that they are not sufficiently proficient. However, it has been found that after training, many of the experienced employees have become motivated and come up with a number of good improvement proposals. Furthermore, many employees are very pleased that everyone is now learning the task in the same way as opposed to the previous side-by-side learning.

Therefore, it is important to explain clearly early in the process why working according to working standards benefits everyone. It raises safety and quality – thus reducing costs.

"It's about being patient in the preparation phase as well as forwards. Our experience is that the better the preparation, the better the organization will embrace the changes. Because you don't just change hundreds of people's ways to work from one day to another. Again, it's important to answer the question: 'Why are we doing this?'" says Karen Stenholt.

John Vellema concludes by saying:

"Many find their way to the TWI JI programs after working with Lean for quite some time. Mainly because their improvement efforts have not been maintained. With TWI, you don't just send an email to your organization with new standards. Here, you use professional training to anchor the process. I look forward to following the project as it goes from pilot project to further rollout and operation."

Your next step

If you have any questions to the case or TWI in general, you are very welcome to ask them below in the comments or ask them directly to john@btp.dk

What could my next step be in learning more about TWI JI? 

• Call or mail us for a dialogue
• Reading one of our recommended books, articles or viewing more videos on TWI (can be found in "our News and cases")
• Joining one of our Toyota Kata open events (workshops, webinar, conferences or summits) 
• Contact us for arranging a TWI company case visit
• Read more about our approach when supporting a company, that wants to begin their TWI journey. 

No matter what you do, it all starts with you daring to take the lead.