Twi training system. Deming Association (TWI. Missed Lesson). What are the plans and next steps?

One of the problems of Russian enterprises is the lack of preparedness for the work of ordinary employees. The consequence of this is low labor productivity, accident rates, defects, and often low quality of products and services provided. The work of ordinary employees is managed by line managers at the lower level. Most often, they become the most successful ordinary employees.

But as soon as an ordinary employee became a boss, the nature of his work changed dramatically. He began to lead other people. However, managing people is much more difficult than managing machines and equipment, processing information, and providing service to a client. Are lower-level managers ready for this? Are they taught to work with people? As a rule, no. Unfortunately, their lack of ability to manage ordinary employees is often not realized either by themselves or by the top management of the enterprise.

Brief history of TWI

The basis of the course is the American training program Training Within Industry, TWI. In 1940, at the beginning of World War II, American businesses faced two problems: a sharp increase in government orders for military products and a significant reduction in skilled labor due to the conscription of men into the army. The response to this challenge was the creation of the government's TWI Service, whose mission was stated as: "To help industry meet manpower requirements through in-plant training to best utilize the skills of each worker, thereby helping to meet military requirements." The TWI training program was aimed at mass training of lower-level managers in the three skills listed above.

During the period from 1940 to 1945 in the United States, more than one million managers at 16,500 enterprises were trained under this program. Since 1949, Japanese industry began to actively use the program.

Description of the TWI course and training format

The TWI Industrial Training program is considered the predecessor and foundation of the Lean Production and Kaizen methodologies. Of particular value are the program's methodological materials, which describe in detail the process of training managers, and process cards with algorithms for managers' actions in practical situations of training, process improvement, and problem solving.

TWI training in production is structured as follows.

First, there is a mandatory two-hour presentation to the company's senior and middle management. They should know about the TWI program. Their understanding of the essence and importance of TWI, their support for the Program determines the success of training lower-level managers and their subsequent use of TWI technologies in production in their work with ordinary employees.

Size of one study group - no more than 10 people. Training of 1 - 2 training groups can be organized at the same time.

Groups are formed from lower-level managers, who report to ordinary employees. Lists of groups are agreed upon with the business coach.

There is one lesson per day for each group lasting two astronomical hours.

In accordance with one of the basic principles of TWI, “Learning through activity,” in this training, independent work between classes on assignments from a business coach is of great importance. Two hours of working time should be allocated for this. Thus, the course is conducted without interruption from production activities, with training time allocated to managers undergoing training in the amount of half a working day for 5 days of each training module.

Leaders in the Program are named by students. This highlights the importance of their active role in learning. The term “trainee” initially forms a passive role (“make me lose weight!”). The success of this course is possible only with the active position of the participant in the training - the student.

At the beginning of classes, students are given a “Supervisor Handbook” and three laminated cards with action algorithms. Based on these materials, students work in class and complete assignments between classes. Upon completion of training, these materials remain with managers for use in their work.

TWI Course Composition

The course consists of three modules. The duration of training for each module is 5 days. Each module contains five two-hour lessons with a trainer plus independent work between classes (2 hours a day). Those. within 5 working days, participants will be engaged in training only 4 hours (50%) of their time. The remaining 50% of the time they will be able to perform their main job duties. This mode provides on-site training without interruption from the main job.

Module No. 1: TWI - job training or TWI - industrial instruction.
Module No. 2: TWI - working methods.
Module No. 3: TWI - working relationships.

Preface

This article was written specifically for the Deming Association website. The reason for the interest in the TWI topic is obvious. The requirement to establish an industrial training program is one of the 14 Points of the famous Agenda for American Management proposed by Dr. Deming. This program can with good reason be called a manifesto of the quality revolution that America and the West as a whole experienced at the end of the 20th century. Many American and British authors have noted the special nature of the impact of the text of this program on practitioner managers. First of all, it struck the English-speaking reader with its “strange” choice of words. To draw attention to the meaning of the wording, Deming used rarely used words in the text of this program, words from other areas far from the sphere of management science. It worked, it made people think and delve into the meaning of what was written. And then a new effect arose - the effect of disagreement, rejection, protest. Too many of the program's points contradicted the beliefs of the overwhelming majority of managers and the realities of management practice. Difficult intellectual work was required in order to understand the meaning and significance of the new approach proposed by Deming to building effective organizational and business systems.

Point 6, concerning the mandatory introduction of an on-the-job training system in organizations, obviously stood alone in the 14 Points program for American management. After all, he was extremely clear! For American practitioners, this system was nothing more than “a well-forgotten old one.” Developed in America during the war years, during peacetime it was gradually lost against the background of new, more fashionable management discoveries. Making on-the-job training a separate program item simply restored its role as a necessary and key organizational component without which an organization could not remain competitive in the “new economic era.”

Our perception sometimes plays strange tricks on us. A conscientious “translation” of the 6th paragraph from the “program for American management” into Russian, however, disoriented the domestic reader! Russian readers perceived this point in exactly the same way as American ones. Those. perceived it as obvious, understandable, and consistent with their understanding of organizational practice. “How could it be otherwise! Any enterprise must train its employees.” The problem, however, was that the content of this “obviousness”, the context for American and Russian teaching practice, was significantly different.

The terminology used to describe the content of Point 6 directly connected American readers with the TWI methodology - a well-structured practice training for lower level managers basic management skills, among which the key is the ability to properly train your subordinates. American practitioners were well aware of the features and importance of this methodology. The abbreviation TWI itself (Training Within Industry) was used to designate a mass training program in the process of transferring US industry to the production of military products. This program operated from 1940 to 1945. After the war, with virtually no changes, Japanese industry began to actively use this same methodology.

Russian managers perceived this point in a completely different context. For them, this point was associated with various forms that existed in the USSR employee training. And this significantly disoriented them regarding the meaning of what Deming proposed in her program. Readers simply did not understand and “passed by” this point. It was impossible to properly evaluate it in the absence of information about the goals and content of the TWI program.

Unfortunately, many years had to pass before the original materials on the TWI program, developed in the distant war years, became available to Russian-speaking readers. And, more importantly, experience has emerged in applying this methodology in modern Russian conditions. Thus, it became possible to give an understanding of this practice from a historical perspective and taking into account the realities of modern Russian reality. It is this problem that the article offered to readers solves. We asked E. Ksenchuk to prepare this material since he is part of a very limited circle of domestic specialists who have practical experience in training enterprise personnel based on the TWI methodology. The article describes the history of the appearance of this program, its content, teaching methods, connections with Lean, TPS, as well as the characteristic learning outcomes of this program. In order to avoid new linguistic barriers, we immediately note that the English term “supervisor” used in the article means any lower-level manager who organizes the work of ordinary employees (foreman, foreman, mentor, head of a section, shift, workshop, department).

Since E. Ksenchuk’s material has a pronounced practical orientation, focusing on the content of the TWI methodology itself, the site publisher considered it necessary to supplement this material with an afterword. In the afterword, we tried to analyze the situation with the development of the TWI system in a broader “managerial” context; draw some lessons from the accumulated successful and not very successful domestic experience in the “implementation” of advanced organizational and management technologies. In particular, explain why the desire to follow managerial fashion can lead to the emergence of “blank spots” in the system of professional knowledge. And how, if possible, to avoid the pitfalls of blindly copying other people’s experience, relying on living practice and fundamental management knowledge.

We hope that the proposed materials will help domestic practicing managers realize the enormous potential of the best practices existing in the world for increasing the efficiency and quality of work and will help them develop a rational approach to its development.

Head of the Center for New Management Technologies.

The stone that the builders rejected became the head of the corner

(Psalm 118:22)

Perhaps the TWI program is the most successful

of the curriculum ever developed

both in terms of reaching people and influencing them.

It plays a central role in the conceptual

development of lean manufacturing,

instilling the most important principles in the minds of millions

(Alan Robinson)

1. Context

How do people become leaders? Very often - through promotion from below. A good turner is appointed as a foreman of turners. Common practice, isn't it? At the same time, obviously, the nature of the activities of the newly appointed foreman changes fundamentally. Instead of working on a machine, he begins to work with people. Instead of a machine, cutters and blanks, now in front of him are living workers, individuals: with different characters, habits, different ages, different qualifications. And completely different tasks: instead of manufacturing parts, organizing the work of the team.

The problem is that this fundamental transition of an employee to another quality is often not recognized by the management of the enterprise. Paradox: in order to fly an airplane, a cadet is trained for several years. In order to manage a brigade, an ordinary employee is not trained for an hour. They issued an order and you are the leader. But a person is much more complex than an airplane! And controlling it, and especially a group of people, is more difficult than controlling an airplane!

Insufficient managerial training of lower-level managers, their weak basic skills in working with people is one of the serious problems of today's Russian enterprises, companies, firms - both in the sphere of material production and in the service sector. The lack of management skills of foremen, foremen, heads of departments, sections, shifts leads to a whole bunch of consequences: low productivity of ordinary personnel, low quality of products and services, staff turnover, accident rates, defects.

Ordinary employees are the main asset of any enterprise. They create products and provide services - that is, they create the value for which the company is paid. And in their workplaces, as a rule, there are many problems that must be solved by the people organizing their work. Here is a list called “16 reasons why employees do not do what they are supposed to do” given in the work:

1. They don't know why they should do this.
2. They don't know how to do it.
3. They don't know what is expected of them.
4. They think your method won't work.
5. They believe that their option is better.
6. They believe there is something more important.
7. There is nothing positive about this.
8. They think they are doing it.
9. They are rewarded for not doing so.
10. They are punished for doing this.
11. They foresee the negative consequences of doing it.
12. There are no negative consequences for them if they fail to complete a task.
13. Obstacles are beyond their control.
14. They do not have the necessary knowledge and skills.
15. They have personal problems.
16. Nobody can accomplish this.

Ordinary personnel are clearly deprived of attention from their immediate superiors. And not because they are “bad”. They simply were not taught how to manage other people, how to organize their work, how to train, how to improve work processes, how to prevent and resolve conflicts, how to develop people, etc.

Fine. Let’s say the director realized that every young leader needs a “young fighter course.” Then questions immediately arise. What to teach? What knowledge, what management skills? How long should the course be? How to teach? By what method? In-house or in off-site courses?

Fortunately, these questions have already been asked once. They were answered. A corresponding training program was created. Vast practical training experience has been accumulated, and very detailed teaching materials have been developed. The program was so successful that it is still used today. We are talking about the Training Within Industry, TWI (Training on the Job, Training at Work) program.

2. History

When World War II began in Europe, it became clear in the United States that their role in the fight against German fascism was not only direct participation in hostilities, but also a rapid and large-scale increase in the production of weapons, ammunition, equipment, and military equipment - both for their own army , and for supplies to the allies. Here is a typical quotation from a speech by a government official: “Because we love freedom, we cannot help but throw the last ounce of our production capacity against the worst enemy of freedom. We must build two planes against Hitler’s one plane, two tanks against his one, two ships against his one, two guns against his one."

The beginning of the conscription of reservists into the army and a large-scale increase in orders for military products created a serious problem for the US defense industry: a labor shortage. There was an urgent need to quickly commission a large number of new, inexperienced workers. The response to this challenge was the creation in June 1940 of the government's Industrial Training Service (TWI Service), whose mission was formulated as follows: "To help industry cope with manpower demands through in-plant training to make the best use of the skills of each worker, thereby promoting , meeting military requirements."

In a fairly short period of time, the TWI Service managed to find a solution to this problem. The main idea was as follows. To quickly commission new employees, it is necessary to train their immediate supervisors - foremen, foremen, mentors - in basic management skills. Moreover, lower-level managers need to be trained directly in production – where they work. A number of organizational and methodological principles were also formulated, which are described in detail below in the “Fundamentals” section. Detailed teaching materials have been developed for instructors conducting training. And then the actual large-scale “exit” of TWI Program instructors began.

The learning results from this program are impressive. They are well documented, for example in these sources: , , , ]. During World War II, the TWI Program was trained at more than 16 thousand US defense industry enterprises, and more than one and a half million instructors and lower-level managers were trained. Here is data on the growth of production volumes and enterprise productivity using the example of the legendary “flying fortresses” - four-engine B-17 bombers. If in 1941 75 aircraft were created per month, then in March 1944 364 aircraft were built and transferred to the army. And the cost of one aircraft fell during this period from 242 to 140 thousand dollars. The scale of development of the US defense industry during this period can be assessed through the volume of supplies to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease of equipment, fuels and lubricants, equipment, weapons, ammunition, and food products [,].

TWI regularly surveyed businesses about the impact of TWI training on their operations. The survey results showed significant improvements in the performance of enterprises in the following areas:

• Increase in production volumes
• Reducing the time for onboarding new employees
• Increased productivity
• Reducing waste
• Reducing injuries
• Reducing the number of labor conflicts

Around mid-1944, interest in the TWI Program on the part of American businesses began to wane. There were quite objective reasons for this. Firstly, certain learning outcomes under this program have already been achieved. Secondly, the volume of orders for their products began to decrease. Thirdly, in mid-1945 demobilization and the return of experienced workers to enterprises began. The TWI Service's mission was accomplished and it officially ceased to exist in September 1945. But the TWI story was just beginning.

3.1. Whom to teach?

The leaders of the TWI Service answered this question at the very beginning of the formation of the Service. Lower-level managers (foremen, foremen, mentors, heads of shifts, sections, departments) are the most important category of managers in the enterprise. In TWI documents they are called supervisors. They are the ones who are between senior management and ordinary workers, like between a rock and a hard place. They organize the work of ordinary employees, train them, and solve their problems. Only well-trained supervisors can manage the work of ordinary employees well. It is no coincidence that they are called “Business Sergeants”. The final report of the TWI Service contains one of the main slogans of the project: “Skilled Supervision - The Key To War Production!” (“Skillful leadership is the key to defense production!”).

3.2. What to teach?

3.2.1. Three main factors of production efficiency

What should be the basis of training programs? It is clear that trained supervisors, working in a new way, should help improve production efficiency. Then a logical question arises: what factors at the lower production level, at the level of ordinary personnel, determine production efficiency? By identifying these factors, we will understand where we need to focus training for lower-level managers. The answer to this question was given during the First World War by Charles R. Allen, who wrote a book in 1919 with the characteristic title: “Instructor, Man and Work: A Guide for Instructors in Industry and Vocational Education.” Using Allen's work, TWI ideologists identified the following three main factors:

Supervisor (lower level manager)

Work (production process)

Worker

Supervisor is the head of production. There are no other bosses below him in the management hierarchy. There are only ordinary performers who directly create value in their jobs. The supervisor is responsible for the results of work by organizing the activities of his team. Managing people is a complex and responsible job, and he must have knowledge and skills at least equivalent to the Model of Five Requirements for a Supervisor (see paragraph 3.2.2).

Work processes are the most important area of ​​attention for the supervisor. Processing raw materials, materials, semi-finished products on machines and equipment and transferring them further along the technological chain is what the employee does during the shift. And the main thing about the focus on processes is the thesis that any production process can be improved! It is no coincidence that TWI is considered the predecessor of Kaizen (see Section 5. Connections). The entire training block “Working Methods” is essentially an algorithm of actions to improve the work process.

An employee is a person. With your own unique values, needs, desires, capabilities. This is not an appendage to the machine, not a passive executor of the will of the boss. Only on the basis of respectful attitude towards employees, equal relations, partnerships with them, attention to their problems, their suggestions can it be possible to increase production volumes and improve product quality.

The educational content of the TWI Program was focused on these three factors.

3.2.2. Five requirements for a supervisor

The key question that the TWI Service specialists needed to answer was: what knowledge and skills should a supervisor have? What knowledge needs to be transferred to him, what skills should he develop? The identification of three main factors of production efficiency made it possible to formulate an answer, which was called the “Model of Five Requirements for a Supervisor”:

• Know the job. The supervisor must have a thorough knowledge of the work performed by his employees. Know technology, processes, equipment. Improve your knowledge.
• Know your duties and responsibilities. The supervisor must have a good understanding of the goals, objectives, plans of the enterprise, navigate the organizational structure, understand the place of his unit in production processes, and know the norms and rules adopted in the organization. He must clearly understand what he is responsible for and what powers he has.
• Be able to train employees. Be able to plan training for employees in new skills and new processes.
• Be able to improve work processes. Be able to find, together with employees, opportunities for improvement and simplification of the work performed.
• Have leadership skills. Be able to prevent and resolve conflict situations, be able to create productive industrial relations, be able to solve personal and production problems of employees.

It can be seen that in this list the first two requirements relate to knowledge that is largely related to a specific enterprise. Therefore, in accordance with the TWI methodology, mastering this knowledge is the responsibility of enterprise management. And teaching the three skills is the responsibility of TWI instructors.

The relationship between the main factors of production efficiency and the training blocks of the TWI Program is shown in Table. 1.

Table 1

Main Factors of Production Efficiency	TWI Program Training Units
	Job training	Working methods	Work relationship
Supervisor	Supervisor training in all three training units is important. Three basic management skills: the ability to teach work, the ability to improve processes, and the ability to build productive working relationships are closely interrelated. Only mastery of all three creates synergy and allows a leader to rise to a new level. When talking about three learning blocks, TWI specialists use the metaphor of a three-legged stool: three legs - three learning blocks; remove one leg and the entire TWI structure falls apart. A good visual representation of the relationship between the supervisor requirements and the training units of the TWI Program is given in Appendix 9.5
Job	To perform a job well, an employee must be well trained	Any work can be improved using the algorithm presented in this training block	Work is done well when the employee is psychologically comfortable working
Worker	All three training blocks are addressed to the employee. Based on the “Job Training” block, the employee is effectively trained to work. Through the “Work Methods” block, the employee is involved in activities to improve production processes. Possession of the skills developed by the “Working Relationships” block allows the manager to prevent and solve personal and work-related problems of the employee.

What, exactly, is the educational content of each educational block? What exactly are supervisors taught in the TWI Program? The subject of study, or, more precisely, the subject of mastery, are three methods, three algorithms of action. The algorithms are of the same type in structure and consist of four stages (clause 3.2.4).

In the “Job Training” block, supervisors are taught how to properly plan, organize and conduct training for ordinary employees. The methodology for training employees in a condensed form is given in Appendix 9.1.

The “Working Methods” block presents a sequence of steps to improve the existing work process. The process improvement algorithm is summarized in Appendix 9.2.

In the “Working Relations” block, rules and recommendations for preventing production problems are studied and an algorithm for solving problems that arise is mastered (Appendix 9.3).

The pocket cards shown in Appendices 9.1-9.3 are actively used by students during training and remain with them for use later in their work.

3.2.4. Four-step method of action

Each training block of the TWI Program is based on a specific algorithm of actions. This algorithm must be reliably mastered by the supervisor in all its details in order to act on its basis in certain production situations. The authors of TWI managed to achieve internal methodological unity of all three algorithms of actions that supervisors must master. These algorithms are identical in structure and each of them consists of four stages. The four-step process, repeated across all three training units, makes TWI much easier for supervisors to master. The originator of this method is Charles R. Allen. A summary table of the four-step method is given in Table 2. These algorithms are the basis for the content of the supervisor’s personal pocket cards (Appendices 9.1-9.3).

table 2

3.3. Where to study?

3.3.1. Training - inside production

A serious drawback of many training programs is their “isolation” from practice. What do they say to a university graduate arriving at the plant? Right. “Forget everything you were taught. Everything is different here." Recently, more and more criticism has been heard against MBA programs, including for their excessively theoretical nature and the weak connection of the material being studied with the real problems of enterprises.

At the time of its creation, the TWI Service was faced with the need to urgently solve several problems: quickly commission new employees, ensure an increase in the volume of products without reducing its quality. Perhaps the factor of urgency was decisive when choosing a fundamental decision: to train foremen, foremen, and mentors directly at their enterprises. This decision also logically followed from the accepted rule “Learning through activity.”

Training supervisors at their enterprises allowed them to:

• Ensure the extremely practical nature of the training, when supervisors studied directly at their workplaces, surrounded by real and native production, in interaction with their employees and with colleagues from related departments
• Ensure high motivation for learning, including through the support of senior management
• Provide expert support for training: during the course of training, supervisors could address questions and problems to their superiors, experienced specialists from other departments.

Focusing on learning in your own company, in your shop, in your work environment, among your colleagues has proven to be very productive. The awareness and importance of this approach is evident from the name of the entire project: “Training within production.”

3.3.2. Top Management Responsibilities

In the TWI Program, serious attention was paid to working with senior management of the enterprise. The TWI Service was well aware that without the initiative of the first managers, without their understanding of the need and importance of in-house training for lower-level managers, there would be no result. In the final report of the TWI Service for the entire period of its work, there is a chapter called: working with management. TWI representatives had to solve two problems. The first is, without imposing training on the TWI program, to arouse interest in this program among the director of the enterprise and receive an invitation from him to conduct such training. And the second task is to obtain his consent that he accepts responsibility in the following matters:

• Establish (lay down) a policy on the importance and necessity of training
• Provide support for the project on your part, in particular, in working with your deputies, middle and lower level managers
• Monitor the progress of the training program
• Achieve results – trained supervisors

Only with the support of the training project by senior and middle managers could TWI trainers expect that the necessary conditions for training supervisors would be created for them, and that supervisors would be motivated to train. A poster with the distribution of responsibilities between the TWI coaching team and the host company management is shown in Appendix 9.6.

3.3.3. Training is an investment

This principle is addressed primarily to the management of the enterprise. Training is not a service that is provided to the supervisor for his development, not his choice, for which he must pay and study in his free time. This is an investment of the enterprise in its development, which means:

• The project of training lower-level managers is costly for the enterprise - both in monetary terms and in terms of the distraction from work of both trainees and other specialists, and the diversion of other resources. “Training must be carried out during working hours at the expense of the company”
• The investment must provide a “return”, an effect in the form of increased production and product quality. The responsibility of management is to monitor the results of training, its ultimate goal.

3.4. How to teach?

3.4.1. Learning – through activity

In pedagogy, the “learning pyramid” is widely known - a visual image of the dependence of the amount of material learned on the teaching method used (Fig. 1). TWI Service specialists have adopted the principle of “learning by doing” as a basic training principle from the very beginning.

This is perhaps the most important principle of TWI technology. It is no coincidence that the book on the history of TWI is called by the authors: “Learning through action. History of Industrial Training". In accordance with this principle, training in each educational block is based on one principle: first, the educational material is told, discussed, reinforced in the classroom (including through completing assignments: individually or in small groups, through group discussions), then the students go to production and perform tasks at their workplaces, in the next lesson they talk about their experiences and receive feedback from the trainer and colleagues. Then the cycle is repeated with a new portion of educational material.

In the lesson plans of the “Work Training” block, time is allocated to analyze and show with examples the principle: “Only telling or only showing are bad teaching methods.”

The practical orientation of training, involving trainees in activities, stimulating their interaction with their employees during training and discussing the results of such interaction are the strengths of TWI technology. Please note how close this approach is to today’s adult learning technologies: active learning methods, training, business games, and the case method.

3.4.2. Breaking down the work into stages

Structuring the work is a successful methodological find by TWI specialists. Breaking down work into stages is an important part of the educational content of the “Work Training” block. As a rule, in every job there is a small number of really important, critical moments. These are the ones you need to focus on when learning. Highlighting the stages allows students to focus their attention on the most important elements of the work being performed, show how exactly the element is done, and explain why this is done (Fig. 2).

The tabular form of structuring the work is shown in Table. 3. Practicing describing your work processes is an important part of your supervisor training program. An example of a job description during training is given in Appendix 9.4.

Dividing work into stages is the first step of the algorithm for improving the workflow of the “Work Methods” block. In this case, structuring the work allows you to ask a number of guiding questions at each stage that help you better understand the work process and lead to ideas for improvements (see Appendix 9.2).

Table 3

3.4.3. The principle of plurality

In war, the time factor is often of decisive importance. The TWI service needed to train a huge number of lower-level managers at enterprises in a short time. This could be done in one way: quickly develop a training methodology, train the first groups of trainers in this technique, then each of them will train the next group of trainers, and then they go out to enterprises. If the enterprise is large or medium-sized, TWI trainers train internal trainers there, who already directly train their foremen, foremen, heads of departments, shifts, and sections. If the company is small, external TWI trainers themselves conduct training for groups of supervisors.

This approach is called the “Principle of Multiplicity”. It is clear that for its implementation, detailed standard methodological materials were needed.

3.4.4. Standard teaching materials

And such teaching aids for TWI trainers were created for each training block. These are detailed lesson plans. It describes minute by minute what the trainer should say and do during the lesson, and what the training participants should do. The manuals were printed in large font for ease of reading by the trainer during the lesson. Different fonts, symbols, and frames were used to highlight one or another type of material or instructions for the trainer. In the footer of each page was the phrase: “Work according to this plan - don’t rely on your memory!” At the beginning of each methodological manual there was an appeal to the trainers by the head of the TWI Service. Here is one paragraph from that appeal: “In order to ensure the same high standard, you must ALWAYS work to this plan. Never leave him. Don't rely on your memory, no matter how many times you've worked the plan. It is not hard. If you always follow instructions, you will never fail."

TWI Service representatives demanded strict adherence to lesson plans. Trainers were required to strictly follow the manuals or they would lose their teaching privileges. The use of standard teaching materials ensured the required quality of training even by trainers who had no experience in teaching adults.

3.4.5. Duration of classes

During the first period of “pilot” training projects, TWI specialists selected the following time-related course parameters that became the standard for all years of active training in this program:

• Duration of training for one training block - 10 hours
• The training consists of five two-hour sessions
• A two-hour lesson is held without interruption.
• No more than one lesson is held per day (there should be time for independent training on the educational material, so that the content “fits” into your head)
• Training for one training block should not last more than two weeks

3.4.6. Band size

The authors of the teaching methodology determined the optimal size of the training group: no less than 9 and no more than 11 people. This is due to the implementation of the principle of “Learning through action”. In the classroom, after studying a portion of theoretical material, it is consolidated in practice. Then, after the lesson, supervisors independently practice reinforcing the training material at their workplaces, and at the next lesson they tell the group about their experience and receive feedback from colleagues and the trainer. If the group is less than 9 people, then, firstly, it is not rational from the point of view of using the coach’s potential and, secondly, there will be too little feedback from the group members. If there are more than 11 people in the group, there will not be enough time to listen to each participant and discuss their results.

4. Continuation of the story

It is very difficult to reconstruct events that took place seventy years ago. Especially in Japan. And to see the underlying causes of these events, their driving forces, is almost impossible. Especially from Russia, having access to only a few books and articles from the USA. The story of how the TWI Program ended up in Japan in 1949, destroyed after the Second World War, is incredibly interesting to me. But practically unknown. And there is information about what happened next.

Here's what Jim Huntzinger has to say. On the initiative of the American occupation administration, Lowell Mellon, director of TWI Inc., and three of his colleagues arrived in Japan in 1949. Mellon was a TWI instructor during World War II. Their task is to transfer TWI technology to the defeated Japanese. Over the course of 6 months, they train 35 “senior trainers” and prepare the basis for the dissemination of the TWI Program. The Japanese embraced TWI enthusiastically, and after the departure of a group of Americans, several government agencies continued to promote TWI within the Japanese industry.

And the principle of plurality, or multiplier effect, worked in full force in Japan! By 1995, nearly 100,000 TWI certified instructors had been trained, and the total number of managers, instructors, and employees trained was nearly 10 million. Here I will ask the reader to look ahead and read Section 6. The Hidden Power of TWI.

Those millions of young, promising managers who passed through TWI in the fifties of the last century became in the sixties and seventies the middle and top management of the Japanese industry, full participants in the “Japanese economic miracle.” And they contributed to the creation of new approaches to production management - such as Kaizen, Lean, TPS.

“Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran and other American experts rightly deserve a place in history for their significant contributions to the industrial development of Japan. However, training under the TWI Program introduced by the occupation authorities after World War II may have made an even greater contribution. This program has indeed had a strong influence on the way Japanese managers think and practice: many management practices considered “Japanese” have their roots in TWI.” So wrote Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder in their famous 1993 article “Training, Continuous Improvement, and Human Relations: The American TWI Program and the Japanese Management Style.”

Masaaki Imai, in his book Gemba Kaizen, echoes this assessment and continues: “In many Japanese companies, successful completion of the TWI course has become mandatory for promotion to middle management. The TWI program has taught generations of Japanese managers three concepts: the importance of human relationships and people's involvement; the methodology and value of continuous improvement of processes and products; benefit from a scientific and rational approach to managing people and operations based on the plan-do-see method.

In general, TWI is fine in Japan. Here in Russia - no way. TWI for domestic management is a big “blank spot”. What about the rest of the world? If we talk about the USA and Europe, TWI is not dead and, it seems, interest in it has only been growing in the last 10-15 years. This is evidenced by a large number of recently published books [ , , , , , ] and Internet resources [...]. This is evidenced by the regularly held annual TWI summits [,]. For example, a joint summit of HR and TWI specialists is scheduled to take place in May 2016.

It is generally accepted that the TWI Program became the basis for the branches of management that grew in Japan after World War II and spread throughout the world. We are talking about the following concepts:

• TQM, Total Quality Management - Total management based on quality,
• Kaizen – Continuous Improvement, continuous improvement methodology
• TPS, Toyota Production System – Toyota Production System
• Lean - Lean manufacturing

The root role of TWI is already visible from the titles of books and articles on this topic:

The objectives of this article do not include a detailed analysis of the connections between each block of the TWI Program and management concepts that are relevant today, in particular, with Lean and Kaizen approaches and tools. However, in the depths of the Internet, I came across an interesting presentation by John Shook, where he analyzes in detail the impact of TWI on Toyota. It is known that Toyota is one of the first Japanese companies that immediately, from the beginning of the 50s, introduced TWI for a long time and in full. In Fig. Figure 3 shows one of the key slides of the presentation. It is curious that among the 13 factors that influenced the formation of Toyota, Shook put TWI in first place!

What exactly did Toyota management take from TWI? According to the author of the presentation, these are:

• Scientific method (four-step procedure: observation and description; formulation of hypotheses; formulation of assumptions based on hypotheses; testing assumptions in experiment)
• Continuous Improvement
  • Standardization and improvement of processes
  • Individual employee initiative
• Employee development
  • Focus on on-the-job training
  • Cascaded training (principle of plurality, clause 3.4.3)

If we try to identify the main influences of TWI on modern management concepts, then we can probably draw such connections. The Work Training block was the predecessor to the Standardized Work tool in Lean. In addition, an independent direction has appeared: “On the Job Training”, OJT: “On-the-Job Training” with its own, more developed, methodology, with its own literature. The Kaizen continuous improvement methodology grew from the “Working Methods” block. And the “Working Relations” block (together with the “Work Training” block) advanced management in a “humanistic” direction. In 1981, T. Asozu’s book “Human Production According to Konosuke Matsushita” was published in Japan. The content of the book is based on the seven “keys” of human production:

• Feeling of need for human production. In business, the most important thing is people. Success is achieved by the enterprise in which human capabilities are used more effectively.
• Respect for a person and development of his interests.
• Clearly formulate the business ideology and mission of the enterprise. A high goal develops aspiration in a person.
• The need to strive for profit must be understood by the company's employees. In the pursuit of profit, rationalization, cost reduction, and the development of new types of products are encouraged. It is not allowed to reduce wages or increase the working hours.
• Constantly strive to improve working conditions and improve the well-being of company employees. Poor material conditions cannot be compensated for by psychological propaganda. Having fun at work is the best motivation for increasing productivity.
• Fill people's hearts with hope. A person grows when he has a dream. A manager who does not instill a dream in the souls of people is untenable. When you work, you don't need sacrifices. The most effective work is that which brings joy.
• Man, the correct view of man is the basis of everything. Human production is on a different level compared to making things and making money. Knowledge of individual technical techniques will not bring success in this production. Here it is important to have your own idea of ​​the purpose of man in the world and the meaning of his existence. It is necessary to respect his individuality, to accept everyone as he is.

6. The Hidden Power of TWI

Any activity has direct and indirect results. “They cut down the forest and the chips fly.” The felled tree is a direct result. Chips are an indirect, by-product. There are even less observable effects - strengthening the heart, lungs, and lumberjack muscles. The goal is usually direct results, but more important, especially in the medium and long term. in the long term, there may be by-products of the activity.

It appears that in the case of the TWI phenomenon, the indirect effects of supervisor training are much more important than the direct ones. Direct results are, in fact, three developed skills:

• Ability to train ordinary employees to work using a special algorithm
• Ability to improve work processes using a special algorithm
• The ability to prevent and resolve industrial and interpersonal conflicts using special rules and algorithms.

Skills are supported by personal pocket cards with rules and algorithms, which are always “at hand” for the manager.

What could be indirect learning outcomes? Let's take a closer look at what is happening in the supervisor's head, in his “picture of the world” while studying in the TWI Program. Let us recall the two main methodological principles of the Program: learning through activity and learning at the enterprise. As a result of specially organized active activity in his work environment, in contacts with his employees, with subsequent analysis in the group of the actions of his own and his colleagues, the supervisor encounters unexpected things:

• He begins to understand how complex other people working next to him are.
• He sees how difficult it is to get another person to perform simple actions, from his, the supervisor’s, point of view.
• It turns out that he physically cannot know all the subtleties of the work performed by all his subordinates
• He notices what unexpected reasons for him there may be in the behavior of another person
• It suddenly becomes clear to him how easy it is to be misunderstood and how easy it is to understand a subordinate “in the wrong way.”
• He finds himself in a situation that is unthinkable for him, when he turns out to be exactly wrong, when his point of view on some production situation is one-sided and erroneous.
• He discovers how many subtleties, details, and tricks there can be even in an elementary operation
• He realizes that it is necessary to improve processes with those who carry them out, but working on improvements is possible if people respect you, but for this you must respect them
• He is faced with the fact that attention and respect for an employee is not the phrase “I respect you,” but difficult everyday work, consisting of very specific elements
• It turns out that the implementation of any improvement depends on many people, so you need to be able to listen and hear them, and be able to negotiate

This list could go on. If you try to highlight the main thing from all the “insights” of the average supervisor, it will probably turn out something like this:

These are indirect results of a supervisor completing the TWI Program. And they are fundamentally important. If after training a manager comes to approximately the same conclusions, he has changed as a person! Now, in any work or life situation, he will behave in accordance with this new understanding of people, himself and the essence of leadership. He will no longer make many management mistakes. The groups usually recruit fairly young and promising foremen and foremen. And these acquired basic things will remain with them for the rest of their career. And when they become mid- and senior-level managers, the inoculation of TWI's management culture will stay with them.

The main result of training under the TWI Program is a change in the personality, “picture of the world” of the supervisor, reaching a higher level of culture of thinking and culture of communication. It is no coincidence that when monitoring training results, TWI specialists recorded not only improved performance indicators, but also improved communication, improved teamwork, increased cohesion, and corporate spirit. If you take a closer look at the content of any of the three TWI methods, you will find that they are all based on respect for people. For example, the slogan of the first training block is “If the employee has not learned, then the instructor has not taught.” What is read in this statement? “If you work poorly, this does not mean that you are bad, that you are to blame. We, your leaders, did not finish this.”

A shift in the thinking of a novice leader from an authoritarian paradigm (“I’m in charge - I know better”) to a collaborative paradigm (people are different, I’m no better than others, and only equal, partnerships give breakthrough results) is not obvious, but perhaps the main result the TWI project, the secret of its success and long life.

Here are a few excerpts from the final questionnaires of the participants in my training in the “Job Training” block:

• I realized how important it is to hear, understand and accept a person, and not just yourself
• The training was not intrusive and at first did not promise the stunning effect that my worldview received
• I understood a lot for myself - feedback, training, mutual understanding and much more.
• Training is very useful from the point of view of understanding myself (am I thinking and reasoning correctly?)
• The vision of people in general has changed
• It's horrible. I realized that I taught people wrong for four years
• Training has completely changed the worldview in terms of learning. I completely reconsidered my approaches to work, as well as to children and family.

Here are the learning outcomes (besides mastering the educational material itself) that supervisors note after the “Work Methods” block:

• Understanding the importance of group work on improvements
• Understanding the importance of communication between departments and exchange of experience
• Understanding that there is always room for improvement
• Understanding the “internal supplier – internal consumer” relationship between related departments

Patrick Graupp, a well-known TWI specialist [, , ,], in the article “The Human Element of TWI” writes: “Lean in the USA is justifiably criticized for its total emphasis on processes and methods, when the main thing is overlooked: the importance of people - what Toyota calls respect for people. Creating an organization that truly respects its people before implementing production system tools is a lesson that most organizations miss. Without the passion and support of the people actually doing the work, we cannot be sure that the necessary changes are happening and being sustained... People are not machines and TWI teaches leaders how to engage the hearts and minds of people on every job - no matter how complex or simple and small."

The concept of humanism in industry was one of the most popular ideas adopted by the Japanese from TWI. The idea that good management included respect for subordinates was revolutionary for Japanese management at that time. “TWI was able to teach the Japanese that good human relations is a good business practice that can destroy the authoritarian management traditions that were widespread in Japan before and during the war.”

7. Conclusion

1. The TWI program was initially developed for the needs of material production. However, it is almost completely applicable to service sector enterprises. It is enough to change a few training examples.
2. Training under the TWI Program has its own value. After training, the management of the enterprise receives a community of lower-level managers who begin to work with staff more skillfully. But such training is even more important if management is planning organizational development projects. TWI helps top management create directly at the production site, at the level of ordinary employees, a critical mass of “agents of change” who are ready and able to accept the proposed changes, implement them and maintain the achieved results.
3. Acknowledgments
   • I learned about TWI from Sergei Smirnov
   • Vyacheslav Boltrukevich suggested that I do a course on TWI for the MBA-PS programs at the Moscow State University Graduate School of Business
   • Yuri Rubanik, Vyacheslav Boltrukevich and Georgy Leibovich supported and fueled my interest in TWI and provided me with access to materials on this topic
   • Mikhail Kalinin easily and selflessly gave me original teaching materials.
   Thank you, colleagues!

Evgeniy Ksenchuk

Novosibirsk, May 2016

[email protected]

8. Sources

1. Imai M. Gemba Kaizen: the path to reducing costs and improving quality. M., 2005.
2. D.A. Dinero, Training Within Industry – The Foundation of Lean, New York: Productivity Press, 2005.
3. Implementing TWI: Creating and Managing a Skills-Based Culture. 2010. by Patrick Graupp, Robert J. Wrona
4. Learn By Doing: The Story of Training Within Industry by Walter Dietz and Betty W. Bevens. 1970
5. Standardized Work with TWI: Eliminating Human Errors in Production and Service Processes 2016 by Productivity Press Bartosz Misiurek
6. The Training Within Industry Report 1940-1945, War Manpower Commission Bureau of Training, September 1945.
7. The TWI Workbook: Essential Skills for Supervisors, 2006, by Patrick Graupp, Robert J. Wrona
8. The 7 Kata: Toyota Kata, TWI, and Lean Training. 2012 by Productivity Press Conrad Soltero, Patrice Boutier
9. Training, Continuous Improvement, and Human Relations: The U.S. TWI Programs and the Japanese Management Style. Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder, California Management Review vol. 35, no. 2, 1993. - twi-institute.com
10. TWI Case Studies: Standard Work, Continuous Improvement, and Teamwork. 2011 by Donald A. Dinero

9. Applications

Appendix 9.1.

Appendix 9.2.

Appendix 9.3.

Appendix 9.4.

Appendix 9.5.

Appendix 9.6.

Afterword:
“Discovery” of the TWI system by Russian management or how organizational and managerial innovations spread.

“I didn’t even notice the elephant!”
I.A. Krylov

We live in a new economic era. This is an era in which people experience constant stress, “future shock,” as a result of a continuous flow of innovations and profound changes in various areas of life.

It is important to note that these innovations are not limited to the field of manufacturing technology. No less, and perhaps more significant changes occur as a result of the emergence and implementation of organizational, managerial, and social innovations. As R. Florida writes, if a person from the 50s of the last century were transported to our time, technical innovations would not greatly shock him at the beginning of the 21st century. In the end, what: essentially the same means of transportation, the same means of telecommunications, the same urban environment, the same ways of ensuring life, housing, medicine, education... However, during this time, fundamental, profound changes have occurred in the sphere social, in the ways of organizing production processes, ways of interaction between people in the production sphere * .

The era of dominance in the economy by huge corporations based on the principles of a strict hierarchy, using standard and formalization of behavior as the main tool for ensuring efficiency, is a thing of the past. In order to survive, these corporations had to lose a lot of weight, become significantly more flexible, able to sensitively sense the nerve of time, quickly change their strategy, and actively use the potential of the innovative element - non-standard creative people, innovative companies.

Our lag in terms of production methods and technologies is well recognized in society and in the business community. But, no less, we suffer from a gap when it comes to effective methods of organization and management. It is important to realize this, acknowledge it and, without wasting time, persistently act in order to bridge this gap - to learn.

You have to learn from everyone who has achieved success and who has gone ahead. And although the list of teachers is wide and constantly expanding, we still pay especially close attention to the two main sources of knowledge in this area: the USA and Japan.

The distribution of roles between these leading countries is very dynamic. They “mirror” each other, taking turns acting as the creator of organizational and managerial innovation and its receiver, recognizing and revealing the full potential of the innovation. In the post-war years, the United States acted as the main source of both technical and organizational and managerial innovation. Japan played the role of an excellent student who most brilliantly developed and implemented the ideas of his mentor. In recent decades, on the contrary, Japan has often acted as a source of best practices, a source of organizational and managerial innovation. And the United States often acts as a qualified analyst, interpreter and receiver of this practice.

Of course, we should all be very grateful to researchers and scientists in the field of management, since it is they who, as a rule, open the world’s eyes to the meaning of those actions, those practices that leading companies invent. They essentially extract from the experience of leading companies its essence - knowledge about the principles and methods of effective production. And thereby making them available for conscious, expanded use in other countries, in other situations. This is how the process of dissemination of knowledge, “diffusion of innovations” occurs in other industries, areas of activity, in other countries, from the center to the periphery.

Our contribution to this global innovation process is not yet very large. We learn about another discovery in the field of organization and management, a significant achievement because one of the main players once again said: “Eureka!” Expressed admiration for what another participant has achieved in an article or book. And thus he put this achievement at the center of our attention, initiated the study of this experience, and launched attempts to apply it in domestic practice.

It was through this kind of “diffusion of innovation” that knowledge of statistical process control (SPC) methods came to us. On the principles and methods of optimizing all organizational processes on the principles of quality (TQM). This is how we learned about the just-in-time system. On methods of involving company personnel in continuous improvement - the Kaizen system. Toyota production system. And a whole series of other organizational and managerial innovations.

However, this model of disseminating innovations through “second and third hands” has significant limitations. A potential adopter of an innovation can see only those components of the organizational system that have been described by expert researchers who have the opportunity to directly study this experience. And experts are imperfect. Any expert “filters” information, highlighting only those factors and conditions for the success of advanced organizations that seem new and significant to him. And which he himself was able to recognize and appreciate. But then these books are read and interpreted by other experts, as well as followers who have a desire to apply these innovations in their own country. And again, they highlight those factors that seem significant to them. The effect of such “multiple filtering” leads to the fact that knowledge about the existence and role of a number of essential components of the organizational and management systems of leading companies remains hidden. Therefore, from time to time, experts at all levels and, especially, followers-practitioners attend “discoveries”. They learn that while they dutifully delve into the details of the experiences of leading organizations, they nevertheless did not know or overlooked the truly key success factors without noticing them. It’s truly like in Krylov’s fable, when a curious museum visitor noted and admired the smallest insects, but did not notice the elephant!

A striking example of this kind of “elephant that was not noticed” in the American and Japanese experience of domestic science and practice of management is the system of on-the-job training (TWI). About the history and essence of this system, which E. Ksenchuk wonderfully talks about in his article.

We will only note that information about the key significance of this system has literally been lying under the very nose of the domestic reader for years. The elephant was here a long time ago. It is enough to mention that Dr. Deming in his famous 14 points for American management directly states: “Establish a system of on-the-job training in the company.” * . So what? In our company, we always train employees on the job! What's especially new here? Those. classic case: we look and don’t see!

The story of the “invisible elephant named TWI” is another example of illustrating a well-known thesis: due to the high level of complexity of organizational systems, diversity of connections, specificity, and uniqueness of the context, it is impossible to “simply copy” the organizational and management decisions of successful companies. There will always be a lack of knowledge about some unrecognized but significant ingredient of success, about the “elephant”, in the absence of which “the puzzle will not fit,” the recipe “will not work in our conditions.”

Hence the conclusion: followers who try to apply innovations in the organizational and managerial sphere always have to think out, discover, and reinvent a significant part of organizational decisions.

This thesis may give rise to a certain pessimism. After all, advanced countries and leading companies base their success on the experience of entire generations of researchers and practitioners. They spent dozens, if not more, years on their way to the state of society and economy to which we are striving! And what, we also have to spend an equivalent number of years inventing our own bicycle, suitable for riding on our roads?!

Of course this is not true. There are a number of moments that give a chance to those who, according to those who have gone ahead, are “hopelessly behind.”

Firstly, in order for this chance to appear, you must finally stop being like the heroine of “12 Chairs,” Ellochka the Ogress, whose life was centered on her rivalry with Vanderbilt! “Compete with yourself and no one else.” We don’t need to get hung up on tasks like “catch up and overtake America” or Japan. There is no need to create “your own proprietary production system” because Toyota created them. Every company, every country has its own history, its own destiny, its own conditions and criteria for success. Each country, each organization must set goals and priorities in accordance with its history, its culture, resources and capabilities, and then consistently solve the problems that arise on the way to this goal.

There is no need to reach a level of organization comparable to the Toyota company in order to achieve success today among consumers in Moscow, Ufa, Uryupinsk, Kostanay, Brest... It's super difficult and very expensive. In order to succeed with consumers in these cities, it is important to do what is right for these consumers now. It was this lesson that the cunning fist Skorokhodov taught to Gleb Vosmerkin, who was trying to reproduce American industrial marketing technologies in the Russian post-revolutionary village * .

But, there is no need and no opportunity to copy the organizational system, say, the Toyota production system, even if you directly compete with this company. At the end of the day, the consumer decides what they will buy based on results. Therefore, what really matters is the ability to get the same or better results. What method of organization was used does not matter to the consumer. There are countless such ways. And what is important is that in reality there are no “standard” methods of organization that can be copied. The organization and management systems of all successful companies are in continuous development. What are we going to copy? Description of the Toyota production system as of the beginning of 2005, as it was understood and presented by an American researcher in a book published in America in 2010 and translated into Russian in 2015?

It is impossible to copy a system, because it is always only a reflection of the current moment along an extended path. The real value of the experience of Toyota and other leaders is the opportunity to understand the logic and principles that determined the formation of this path. What really matters is understanding the Why and Why. Why did the company leaders make certain decisions at some point in their journey? What problem was being solved for them at that time? What criteria, what Vision, Values, what strategies guided their decisions at these moments?

The answers to these questions give understanding, give knowledge! The fundamental feature of knowledge is universality. They allow you to foresee, predict the consequences, the effectiveness of certain actions in different conditions, when solving various problems! Knowledge gives those who possess it the opportunity to forge their own path.

This is what effective companies and leaders do that achieve breakthrough results. For those for whom it is important to see that this approach also works in Russian conditions, I advise you to read the book describing the experience of building the BRAZ production system under the leadership of S.V. Filippova * .

Thus, the key condition for overcoming backwardness is this is the ability to quickly accumulate knowledge, extracting it from one’s own and others’ experience.

Experience is always concrete, specific, and has a clear connection to place, time, and circumstances. Experience is scattered and exists in the form of a large number of observations, cases, stories relating to various aspects of life.

In order to extract new knowledge from experience, we must comprehend it, i.e. literally “to make sense” by viewing it through the lens of basic theoretical knowledge. “Experience will not teach you anything without knowledge of theory”! Just as the quality of a crystal growing from a melt is determined by the perfection of the “seed” crystal, so the depth, degree of generality and consistency of basic theoretical knowledge have a decisive influence on the speed of learning and the quality of knowledge acquired by management in the course of practical activities. How is the quality of management knowledge measured? The level of efficiency and competitiveness it achieves!

Dr. Deming left to researchers and practitioners in the field of management an extremely valuable legacy in the form of a body of basic knowledge that ensures high quality analysis and comprehension of experience in this field. The system of “Deming's deep knowledge” is the result of a selection of the most significant theoretical and methodological concepts from the field of systems approach, optimal control theory, cognitive theory and psychology. The system of this knowledge allows practitioners to perceive organizational reality not just at the level of facts and events, but at the level of causal factors and connections, structures that form these events. Reliance on a system of in-depth knowledge allows organizations to quickly increase their intellectual potential by supplementing basic, universal knowledge with “local” knowledge, i.e. related to the specific conditions of a given enterprise. Only such a combination of “universal” and “local” knowledge makes it possible to achieve breakthrough efficiency improvements.

A key component of the basic knowledge system for managers, of course, is a systematic approach to understanding and developing management actions in organizational systems. Understanding an organization as a system does not mean that we strive to see all the factors and connections that determine its productivity and competitiveness without exception. The key point in the systems approach is the ability to see the main thing: i.e. factors and connections, to a decisive extent, determining the formation of current criteria for quality and efficiency.

Access to the level of main connections creates the opportunity to present the organization in the form of holistic structured images with a high degree of universality. Typical examples of this kind of image are the model of an organization as a system of interacting processes, a business model, and others. The role of universal representations of the system can hardly be overestimated. Their use provides enormous savings of time and intellectual effort. First of all, due to the possibility of transferring successful experience and successful decisions. Such, for example, as the TWI system!

The outstanding physiologist, systems engineer, academician V. Ugolev noted the exceptional economy of Mother Nature in terms of the universal, repeated use of successful “constructive” and “technological” solutions once found in the course of evolution. For example, some basic biochemical mechanisms in digestion are included in the “golden fund” of evolution. They were formed during evolution more than a billion years ago and are reproduced practically unchanged in the organisms of most living beings - from protozoa to higher animals. On the contrary, the biochemical mechanisms of respiration are relatively young, they are only a couple of hundred million years old, and nature continues to actively experiment with this building block of life.

The principle of modularity, i.e. “assembling” complex, diverse systems by putting together combinations from a unified set of previously worked out building blocks is a fundamental evolutionary strategy that allows Nature to quickly create organisms that are efficient and maximally adapted to specific conditions.

This approach obviously works remarkably well not only during the evolution of biological organisms, but also during the evolution of social and organizational “organisms.”

A systematic approach provides the key to solving the most important problem that arises when transferring successful organizational solutions found by someone - their compatibility with existing organizational mechanisms, with the cultural environment, and the business context. Unlike mechanistic systems, such as Legos, in complex biological and social systems it is impossible to simply “insert” a new, more advanced element into the existing system. To achieve meaningful improvements in the level of productivity of organizational systems, therefore, always requires concerted changes not in one, but in all elements that significantly interact with the changed element.

This idea is certainly understandable, as long as we are talking about complex biological systems. Thus, in particular, the most serious problems of human health are rarely associated with any one organ. For the most part, they are the result of a disruption in the interaction of a number of organs and regulatory systems. Accordingly, effective treatment of this type of systemic disorder is impossible through a targeted effect on any one organ. The “silver bullet” theory does not work in such cases. To obtain results, coordinated, mutually agreed upon influences are required, aimed at restoring balance and normal joint functioning of organs and systems. And such actions are possible only if the doctor has an image in his head, a model of the body as an integral system, an understanding of the laws of its functioning.

Similar patterns operate in the field of performance management of organizational systems. Organizational problems always arise in a certain external context, creating a challenge, a request for new properties, opportunities. Eliminating problems and increasing efficiency cannot be achieved through isolated changes in individual organizational components. To achieve a significant effect, systemic changes are required, i.e. coordinated changes in goals, indicators, standards, methods, processes, structures, technologies at various organizational levels, in various functional areas. All changes: improvements, new products are subordinated to solving a specific problem facing the organization. System models are a tool for solving the problem of coordinating and subordinating individual changes to strategic priorities, turning them into a “technological ensemble” * ", playing in unison. To characterize such coordinated changes we can therefore use the following formula:

The history and present of work-based learning (TWI) provides examples of systemic changes that respond to current external challenges.

This system was born in a very special historical context - in a mobilization economy in which a huge shortage of workers suddenly arose. In combination with other organizational measures, this system solved the problem of mass, rapid training of personnel. At the end of the war, the personnel problem lost its relevance in the United States, and the TWI system was “demobilized.”

However, it turned out to be extremely popular in the restoration of Japanese industry. After the defeat in the Second World War, this country faced a strategic challenge - organizing the production of products competitive in the world market at a lower level of costs. The implementation of this strategy requires focusing staff attention on the continuous improvement of all processes and systems of the company. On-the-job training became an integral part of a complex of organizational mechanisms, including a system of selection, advanced training, organization, motivation and remuneration, which together ensured the fullest use of the intellectual and creative abilities of workers within the framework of a system of continuous improvement. In particular, as part of the ensemble of organizational and management technologies that formed the basis of the Toyota Production System (TPS), TWI was and remains a key component responsible for the reproduction of human resources and the rapid replication of constantly improving techniques and work methods.

As it turned out, in a post-industrial economy the TWI system not only does not lose, but even increases its importance. In the modern post-industrial economy, the principles of individualized mass production dominate. However, consumers of customized products are unwilling to pay a price significantly different from that offered by mass production systems. Accordingly, the entire set of organizational and management mechanisms that ensure the ability and motivation of personnel to participate in the continuous improvement of processes and systems remains relevant.

At the same time, the post-industrial economy is also characterized by its own challenges, which the TWI system can also help answer. In the context of rapid innovative changes, the emergence of new types of products and technologies for their creation, almost all enterprises are faced with problems associated with the rapid updating of the required set of professional and managerial competencies. A number of competencies are becoming outdated and cease to be relevant. But, at the same time, there is an acute shortage of new competencies necessary to use the potential of the opportunities opened up by the flow of innovations.

The fundamental solution to this problem is the transition from the industrial model of organization, based on the use of a highly specialized workforce, to flexible forms of organization based on network of mobile, flexible workers able to quickly master new roles and acquire new competencies. In turn, this involves the creation of an ensemble of organizational mechanisms and technologies that ensure the operational recording of current knowledge and skills, creating motivation and opportunities for the transfer and development of new knowledge and competencies.

Apparently, in the form of TWI and related human capital formation systems, we have an example of a universal organizational building block that is part of the golden fund of elements for creating effective organizations of the present and future. Developed in the early stages of the industrial era, this technology not only remains relevant in the post-industrial era. But it seems that only now is she beginning to reveal her true potential.

The history of the TWI system is extremely instructive. In addition to the lessons already noted above, it gives a good sense that any significant leap in the effectiveness of organizations is based on a combination of large and small discoveries made at different, sometimes far apart, points in time. Viable systems arise as a result of evolution, not revolution. Therefore, the knowledge about their structure that we can glean from books and articles is like descriptions of the tip of the iceberg. The bulk of experience and successful decisions are hidden from the outside observer. And, what’s even worse, not all of this experience and significant decisions are realized by the inhabitants of these successful organizations themselves. “Unconscious competencies,” you know!

Trying to build a successful company based on information about fashion news is a pointless idea. The only sure way is to grow a successful organization just as we raise a child, directing him towards worthy goals, in accordance with his inner inclinations, following the principles of nature, discovered and tested by those who have gone before us. Trying and using previously found successful solutions, when they provide answers to emerging growing pains and are consistent with the organization's capabilities. Inventing your own solutions when there are no suitable samples. But, always acting consciously, relying on fundamental and accumulated systemic knowledge. “There is no substitute for knowledge!”

Rubanik Yu.T., Doctor of Technical Sciences, publisher of the Deming Association website,
Head of the Center for New Management Technologies.

Training Within Industry (On-the-job training, Industrial training) is a program for training lower-level managers in basic management skills. The program operated from 1940 to 1945 in the United States. Since 1949, Japanese industry began to actively use the program.

The article was prepared for the website of the Deming Association by order of Yu. T. Rubanik (head of the Central Scientific Technical University, prof., doctor of technical sciences). The preface was written by Yu. T. Rubanik.

Preface

Preface

This article was written specifically for the Deming Association website. The reason for the interest in the TWI topic is obvious. The requirement to establish an industrial training program is one of the fourteen points of the famous Agenda for American Management proposed by Dr. Deming. This program can with good reason be called a manifesto of the quality revolution that America and the West as a whole experienced at the end of the 20th century. Many American and British authors have noted the special nature of the impact of the text of this program on practitioner managers. First of all, it struck the English-speaking reader with its “strange” choice of words. To draw attention to the meaning of the wording, Deming used rarely used words in the text of this program, words from other areas far from the sphere of management science. It worked, it made people think and delve into the meaning of what was written. And then a new effect arose - the effect of disagreement, rejection, protest. Too many of the program's points contradicted the beliefs of the overwhelming majority of managers and the realities of management practice. Difficult intellectual work was required in order to understand the meaning and significance of the new approach proposed by Deming to building effective organizational and business systems.

Point 6, concerning the mandatory introduction of an on-the-job training system in organizations, obviously stood alone in the 14 Points program for American management. After all, he was extremely clear! For American practitioners, this system was nothing more than “a well-forgotten old one.” Developed in America during the war years, during peacetime it was gradually lost against the background of new, more fashionable management discoveries. Making on-the-job training a separate program item simply restored its role as a necessary and key organizational component without which an organization could not remain competitive in the “new economic era.”

Our perception sometimes plays strange tricks on us. A conscientious “translation” of the 6th paragraph from the “program for American management” into Russian, however, disoriented the domestic reader! Russian readers perceived this point in exactly the same way as American ones. Those. perceived it as obvious, understandable, and consistent with their understanding of organizational practice. “How could it be otherwise! Any enterprise must train its employees.” The problem, however, was that the content of this “obviousness”, the context for American and Russian teaching practice, was significantly different.

The terminology used to describe the content of Point 6 of the program directly connected American readers with the TWI methodology - a well-structured practice of training lower-level managers in basic management skills, among which the ability to properly train their subordinates is key. American practitioners were well aware of the features and importance of this methodology. The abbreviation TWI itself (Training Within Industry) was used to designate a mass training program in the process of transferring US industry to the production of military products. This program operated from 1940 to 1945. After the war, with virtually no changes, Japanese industry began to actively use this same methodology.

Russian managers perceived this point in a completely different context. For them, this point was associated with the various forms of worker training that existed in the USSR. And this significantly disoriented them regarding the meaning of what Deming proposed in her program. Readers simply did not understand and “passed by” this point. It was impossible to properly evaluate it in the absence of information about the goals and content of the TWI program.

Unfortunately, many years had to pass before the original materials on the TWI program, developed in the distant war years, became available to Russian-speaking readers. And, more importantly, experience has emerged in applying this methodology in modern Russian conditions. Thus, it became possible to give an understanding of this practice from a historical perspective and taking into account the realities of modern Russian reality. It is this problem that the article offered to readers solves. We asked E. Ksenchuk to prepare this material, since he is part of a very limited circle of domestic specialists who have practical experience in training enterprise personnel based on the TWI methodology. The article describes the history of the appearance of this program, its content, teaching methods, connections with Lean, TPS, as well as the characteristic learning outcomes of this program. In order to avoid new linguistic barriers, we immediately note that the English term “supervisor” used in the article means any lower-level manager who organizes the work of ordinary employees (foreman, foreman, mentor, head of a section, shift, workshop, department).

Since E. Ksenchuk’s material has a pronounced practical orientation, focusing on the content of the TWI methodology itself, the site publisher considered it necessary to supplement this material with an afterword. In the afterword, we tried to analyze the situation with the development of the TWI system in a broader “managerial” context; draw some lessons from the accumulated successful and not very successful domestic experience in the “implementation” of advanced organizational and management technologies. In particular, explain why the desire to follow managerial fashion can lead to the emergence of “blank spots” in the system of professional knowledge. And how, if possible, to avoid the pitfalls of blindly copying other people’s experience, relying on living practice and fundamental management knowledge.

We hope that the proposed materials will help domestic practicing managers realize the enormous potential of the best practices existing in the world for increasing the efficiency and quality of work and will help them develop a rational approach to its development.

Rubanik Yu.T., Doctor of Technical Sciences, publisher of the Deming Association website, Head of the Center for New Management Technologies

The stone that the builders rejected became the head of the corner
(Psalm 118:22)

The TWI program is arguably the most successful training program ever developed, both in terms of reaching people and influencing them. It plays a central role in the conceptual development of lean manufacturing, instilling the most important principles in the minds of millions
(Alan Robinson)

1. Context

How do people become leaders? Very often - through promotion from below. A good turner is appointed as a foreman of turners. Common practice, isn't it? At the same time, obviously, the nature of the activities of the newly appointed foreman changes fundamentally. Instead of working on a machine, he begins to work with people. Instead of a machine, cutters and blanks, now in front of him are living workers, individuals: with different characters, habits, different ages, different qualifications. And completely different tasks: instead of manufacturing parts, organizing the work of the team.

The problem is that this fundamental transition of an employee to another quality is often not recognized by the management of the enterprise. Paradox: in order to fly an airplane, a cadet is trained for several years. In order to manage a brigade, an ordinary employee is not trained for an hour. They issued an order and you are the leader. But a person is much more complex than an airplane! And controlling it, and especially a group of people, is more difficult than controlling an airplane!

Insufficient managerial training of lower-level managers, their weak basic skills in working with people is one of the serious problems of today's Russian enterprises, companies, firms - both in the sphere of material production and in the service sector. The lack of management skills of foremen, foremen, heads of departments, sections, shifts leads to a whole bunch of consequences: low productivity of ordinary personnel, low quality of products and services, staff turnover, accident rates, defects.

Ordinary employees are the main asset of any enterprise. They create products and provide services - that is, they create the value for which the company is paid. And in their workplaces, as a rule, there are many problems that must be solved by the people organizing their work. Here's a list called "16 Reasons Why Employees Don't Do What They're Supposed to Do" given in the work:

1. They don't know why they should do this.
2. They don't know how to do it.
3. They don't know what is expected of them.
4. They think your method won't work.
5. They believe that their option is better.
6. They believe there is something more important.
7. There is nothing positive about this.
8. They think they are doing it.
9. They are rewarded for not doing so.
10. They are punished for doing this.
11. They foresee the negative consequences of doing it.
12. There are no negative consequences for them if they fail to complete a task.
13. Obstacles are beyond their control.
14. They do not have the necessary knowledge and skills.
15. They have personal problems.
16. Nobody can accomplish this.

Ordinary personnel are clearly deprived of attention from their immediate superiors. And not because they are “bad”. They simply were not taught how to manage other people, how to organize their work, how to train, how to improve work processes, how to prevent and resolve conflicts, how to develop people, etc.

Fine. Let’s say the director realized that every young leader needs a “young fighter course.” Then questions immediately arise. What to teach? What knowledge, what management skills? How long should the course be? How to teach? By what method? In-house or in off-site courses?

Fortunately, these questions have already been asked once. They were answered. A corresponding training program was created. Vast practical training experience has been accumulated, and very detailed teaching materials have been developed. The program was so successful that it is still used today. It's about the program Training Within Industry, TWI (Training on the job, Industrial training).

2. History

When World War II began in Europe, it became clear in the United States that their role in the fight against German fascism was not only direct participation in hostilities, but also a rapid and large-scale increase in the production of weapons, ammunition, equipment, and military equipment - both for their own army , and for supplies to the allies. Here is a typical quote from a government official in those years: “Because we love freedom, we cannot help but throw the last ounce of our productive capacity against the greatest enemy of freedom. We must build two planes against Hitler’s one plane, two tanks against his one, two ships against his one, two guns against his one.”

The beginning of the conscription of reservists into the army and a large-scale increase in orders for military products created a serious problem for the US defense industry: a labor shortage. There was an urgent need to quickly commission a large number of new, inexperienced workers. The response to this challenge was the creation in June 1940 of the government's Industrial Training Service (TWI Service), whose mission was formulated as follows: "To help industry cope with manpower demands through in-plant training to make the best use of the skills of each worker, thereby promoting , meeting military requirements."

In a fairly short period of time, the TWI Service managed to find a solution to this problem. The main idea was as follows. To quickly commission new employees, it is necessary to train their immediate supervisors - foremen, foremen, mentors - in basic management skills. Moreover, lower-level managers need to be trained directly in production – where they work. A number of organizational and methodological principles were also formulated, which are described in detail below in the “Fundamentals” section. Detailed teaching materials have been developed for instructors conducting training. And then the actual large-scale “exit” of TWI Program instructors began.

The learning results from this program are impressive. They are well documented, for example in these sources: . During World War II, the TWI Program was trained at more than 16 thousand US defense industry enterprises, and more than one and a half million instructors and lower-level managers were trained. Here is data on the growth of production volumes and enterprise productivity using the example of the legendary “flying fortresses” - four-engine B-17 bombers. If in 1941 75 aircraft were created per month, then in March 1944 364 aircraft were built and transferred to the army. And the cost of one aircraft fell during this period from 242 to 140 thousand dollars. The scale of development of the US defense industry during this period can be assessed through the volume of supplies to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease of equipment, fuels and lubricants, equipment, weapons, ammunition, and food.

TWI regularly surveyed businesses about the impact of TWI training on their operations. The survey results showed significant improvements in the performance of enterprises in the following areas:

• Increase in production volumes
• Reducing the time for onboarding new employees
• Increased productivity
• Reducing waste
• Reducing injuries
• Reducing the number of labor conflicts

Around mid-1944, interest in the TWI Program on the part of American businesses began to wane. There were quite objective reasons for this. Firstly, certain learning outcomes under this program have already been achieved. Secondly, the volume of orders for their products began to decrease. Thirdly, in mid-1945 demobilization and the return of experienced workers to enterprises began. The TWI Service's mission was accomplished and it officially ceased to exist in September 1945. But the TWI story was just beginning.

3. Basics

3.1. Whom to teach?

The leaders of the TWI Service answered this question at the very beginning of the formation of the Service. Lower-level managers (foremen, foremen, mentors, heads of shifts, sections, departments) are the most important category of managers in the enterprise. In TWI documents they are called supervisors. They are the ones who are between senior management and ordinary workers, like between a rock and a hard place. They organize the work of ordinary employees, train them, and solve their problems. Only well-trained supervisors can manage the work of ordinary employees well. It is no coincidence that they are called “Business Sergeants”. The final report of the TWI Service contains one of the main slogans of the project: “Skilled Supervision - The Key To War Production!” (“Skillful leadership is the key to defense production!”).

3.2. What to teach?

3.2.1. Three main factors of production efficiency

What should be the basis of training programs? It is clear that trained supervisors, working in a new way, should help improve production efficiency. Then a logical question arises: what factors at the lower production level, at the level of ordinary personnel, determine production efficiency? By identifying these factors, we will understand where we need to focus training for lower-level managers. The answer to this question was given during the First World War by Charles R. Allen, who wrote a book in 1919 with the characteristic title: “Instructor, Man and Work: A Guide for Instructors in Industry and Vocational Education.” Using Allen's work, TWI ideologists identified the following three main factors:

• Supervisor (lower level manager)
• Work (production process)
• Worker

Supervisor is the head of production. There are no other bosses below him in the management hierarchy. There are only ordinary performers who directly create value in their jobs. The supervisor is responsible for the results of work by organizing the activities of his team. Managing people is a complex and responsible job, and he must have knowledge and skills at least equivalent to the Model of Five Requirements for a Supervisor (see paragraph 3.2.2).

Work processes are the most important area of ​​attention for the supervisor. Processing raw materials, materials, semi-finished products on machines and equipment and transferring them further along the technological chain is what the employee does during the shift. And the main thing about the focus on processes is the thesis that any production process can be improved! It is no coincidence that TWI is considered the predecessor of Kaizen (see Section 5. Connections). The entire training block “Working Methods” is essentially an algorithm of actions to improve the work process.

An employee is a person. With your own unique values, needs, desires, capabilities. This is not an appendage to the machine, not a passive executor of the will of the boss. Only on the basis of respectful attitude towards employees, equal relations, partnerships with them, attention to their problems, their suggestions can it be possible to increase production volumes and improve product quality.

The educational content of the TWI Program was focused on these three factors.

3.2.2. Five requirements for a supervisor

The key question that the TWI Service specialists needed to answer was: what knowledge and skills should a supervisor have? What knowledge needs to be transferred to him, what skills should he develop? The identification of three main factors of production efficiency made it possible to formulate an answer, which was called the “Model of Five Requirements for a Supervisor”:

• Know the job. The supervisor must have a thorough knowledge of the work performed by his employees. Know technology, processes, equipment. Improve your knowledge.
• Know your duties and responsibilities. The supervisor must have a good understanding of the goals, objectives, plans of the enterprise, navigate the organizational structure, understand the place of his unit in production processes, and know the norms and rules adopted in the organization. He must clearly understand what he is responsible for and what powers he has.
• Be able to train employees. Be able to plan training for employees in new skills and new processes.
• Be able to improve work processes. Be able to find, together with employees, opportunities for improvement and simplification of the work performed.
• Have leadership skills. Be able to prevent and resolve conflict situations, be able to create productive industrial relations, be able to solve personal and production problems of employees.

It can be seen that in this list the first two requirements relate to knowledge that is largely related to a specific enterprise. Therefore, in accordance with the TWI methodology, mastering this knowledge is the responsibility of enterprise management. And teaching the three skills is the responsibility of TWI instructors.

The relationship between the main factors of production efficiency and the training blocks of the TWI Program is shown in Table. 1.

Table 1

Main Factors of Production Efficiency	Training blocks of the Program TWI
	Job training	Working methods	Work relationship
Supervisor	Supervisor training in all three training units is important. Three basic management skills: the ability to teach work, the ability to improve processes, and the ability to build productive working relationships are closely interrelated. Only mastery of all three creates synergy and allows a leader to rise to a new level. When talking about three learning blocks, TWI specialists use the metaphor of a three-legged stool: three legs - three learning blocks; remove one leg and the entire TWI structure falls apart. A good visual representation of the relationship between the supervisor requirements and the training units of the TWI Program is given in Appendix 9.5
Job	To perform a job well, an employee must be well trained	Any work can be improved using the algorithm presented in this training block	Work is done well when the employee is psychologically comfortable working
Worker	All three training blocks are addressed to the employee. Based on the “Job Training” block, the employee is effectively trained to work. Through the “Work Methods” block, the employee is involved in activities to improve production processes. Possession of the skills developed by the “Working Relationships” block allows the manager to prevent and solve personal and work-related problems of the employee

3.2.3. Training content

What, exactly, is the educational content of each educational block? What exactly are supervisors taught in the TWI Program? The subject of study, or, more precisely, the subject of mastery, are three methods, three algorithms of action. The algorithms are of the same type in structure and consist of four stages (clause 3.2.4).

In the “Job Training” block, supervisors are taught how to properly plan, organize and conduct training for ordinary employees. The methodology for training employees in a condensed form is given in Appendix 9.1.

The “Working Methods” block presents a sequence of steps to improve the existing work process. The process improvement algorithm is summarized in Appendix 9.2.

In the “Working Relations” block, rules and recommendations for preventing production problems are studied and an algorithm for solving problems that arise is mastered (Appendix 9.3).

The pocket cards shown in Appendices 9.1-9.3 are actively used by students during training and remain with them for use later in their work.

3.2.4. Four-step method of action

Each training block of the TWI Program is based on a specific algorithm of actions. This algorithm must be reliably mastered by the supervisor in all its details in order to act on its basis in certain production situations. The authors of TWI managed to achieve internal methodological unity of all three algorithms of actions that supervisors must master. These algorithms are identical in structure and each of them consists of four stages. The four-step process, repeated across all three training units, makes TWI much easier for supervisors to master. The originator of this method is Charles R. Allen. A summary table of the four-step method is given in Table 2. These algorithms are the basis for the content of the supervisor’s personal pocket cards (Appendices 9.1-9.3).

table 2

Stages	Job training	Working methods	Work relationship
1	Prepare the employee	Divide the work into its component elements	Gather the facts
2	Show what and how to do	Explore Every Element	Weigh everything and make a decision
3	Test what you have learned in practice	Develop a new method	Take action and take action
4	Monitor execution	Apply a new method	Track your results

3.3. Where to study?

3.3.1. Training - inside production

A serious drawback of many training programs is their “isolation” from practice. What do they say to a university graduate arriving at the plant? Right. “Forget everything you were taught. Everything is different here." Recently, more and more criticism has been heard against MBA programs, including for their excessively theoretical nature and the weak connection of the material being studied with the real problems of enterprises.

At the time of its creation, the TWI Service was faced with the need to urgently solve several problems: quickly commission new employees, ensure an increase in the volume of products without reducing its quality. Perhaps the factor of urgency was decisive when choosing a fundamental decision: to train foremen, foremen, and mentors directly at their enterprises. This decision also logically followed from the accepted rule “Learning through activity.” Training supervisors at their enterprises allowed them to:

• Ensure the extremely practical nature of the training, when supervisors studied directly at their workplaces, surrounded by real and native production, in interaction with their employees and with colleagues from related departments
• Ensure high motivation for learning, including through the support of senior management
• Provide expert support for training: during the course of training, supervisors could address questions and problems to their superiors and experienced specialists from other departments
• Develop horizontal connections between departments: during the training, the participants got to know each other and became closer to each other, and after training, these new contacts helped them solve their problems and exchange experiences.

True TWI training is only possible:

• at the initiative of the company management
• by production forces
• inside production

(from TWI Service guidance documents)

Focusing on learning in your own company, in your shop, in your work environment, among your colleagues has proven to be very productive. The awareness and importance of this approach is evident from the name of the entire project: “Training within production.”

3.3.2 Top management responsibilities

In the TWI Program, serious attention was paid to working with senior management of the enterprise. The TWI Service was well aware that without the initiative of the first managers, without their understanding of the need and importance of in-house training for lower-level managers, there would be no result. In the final report of the TWI Service for the entire period of its work, there is a chapter called: working with management. TWI representatives had to solve two problems. The first is, without imposing training on the TWI program, to arouse interest in this program among the director of the enterprise and receive an invitation from him to conduct such training. And the second task is to obtain his consent that he accepts responsibility in the following matters:

• Establish (lay down) a policy on the importance and necessity of training
• Provide support for the project on your part, in particular, in working with your deputies, middle and lower level managers
• Monitor the progress of the training program
• Achieve results – trained supervisors

Only with the support of the training project by senior and middle managers could TWI trainers expect that the necessary conditions for training supervisors would be created for them, and that supervisors would be motivated to train. A poster with the distribution of responsibilities between the TWI coaching team and the host company management is shown in Appendix 9.6.

3.3.3. Training is an investment

This principle is addressed primarily to the management of the enterprise. Training is not a service that is provided to the supervisor for his development, not his choice, for which he must pay and study in his free time. This is an investment of the enterprise in its development, which means:

• The project of training lower-level managers is costly for the enterprise - both in monetary terms and in terms of the distraction from work of both trainees and other specialists, and the diversion of other resources. “Training must be carried out during working hours at the expense of the company”
• The investment must provide a “return”, an effect in the form of increased production and product quality. The responsibility of management is to monitor the results of training, its ultimate goal.

3.4. How to teach?

3.4.1. Learning – through activity

In pedagogy, the “learning pyramid” is widely known - a visual image of the dependence of the amount of material learned on the teaching method used (Fig. 1). TWI Service specialists have adopted the principle of “learning by doing” as a basic training principle from the very beginning.

This is perhaps the most important principle of TWI technology. It is no coincidence that the book on the history of TWI is called by the authors: “Learning through action. History of Industrial Training". In accordance with this principle, training in each educational block is based on one principle: first, the educational material is told, discussed, reinforced in the classroom (including through completing assignments: individually or in small groups, through group discussions), then the students go to production and perform tasks at their workplaces, in the next lesson they talk about their experiences and receive feedback from the trainer and colleagues. Then the cycle is repeated with a new portion of educational material.

In the lesson plans of the “Work Training” block, time is allocated to analyze and show with examples the principle: “Only telling or only showing are bad teaching methods.”

Rice. 1. Learning Pyramid

The practical orientation of training, involving trainees in activities, stimulating their interaction with their employees during training and discussing the results of such interaction are the strengths of TWI technology. Please note how close this approach is to today’s adult learning technologies: active learning methods, training, business games, and the case method.

3.4.2. Breaking down the work into stages

Structuring the work is a successful methodological find by TWI specialists. Breaking down work into stages is an important part of the educational content of the “Work Training” block. As a rule, in every job there is a small number of really important, critical moments. These are the ones you need to focus on when learning. Identification of stages allows students to focus their attention on the most important elements of the work being performed, to show How specifically the element is being made, and explain, Why This is how it is done (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Breaking the work into stages

The tabular form of structuring the work is shown in Table. 3. Practicing describing your work processes is an important part of your supervisor training program. An example of a job description during training is given in Appendix 9.4.

Dividing work into stages is the first step of the algorithm for improving the workflow of the “Work Methods” block. In this case, structuring the work allows you to ask a number of guiding questions at each stage that help you better understand the work process and lead to ideas for improvements (see Appendix 9.2).

Table 3

3.4.3. The principle of plurality

In war, the time factor is often of decisive importance. The TWI service needed to train a huge number of lower-level managers at enterprises in a short time. This could be done in one way: quickly develop a training methodology, train the first groups of trainers in this technique, then each of them will train the next group of trainers, and then they go out to enterprises. If the enterprise is large or medium-sized, TWI trainers train internal trainers there, who already directly train their foremen, foremen, heads of departments, shifts, and sections. If the company is small, external TWI trainers themselves conduct training for groups of supervisors.

This approach is called the “Principle of Multiplicity”. It is clear that for its implementation, detailed standard methodological materials were needed.

3.4.4. Standard teaching materials

And such teaching aids for TWI trainers were created for each training block. These are detailed lesson plans. It describes minute by minute what the trainer should say and do during the lesson, and what the training participants should do. The manuals were printed in large font for ease of reading by the trainer during the lesson. Different fonts, symbols, and frames were used to highlight one or another type of material or instructions for the trainer. In the footer of each page there was a phrase: “Work according to this plan - do not rely on your memory!” At the beginning of each methodological manual there was an appeal to the trainers by the head of the TWI Service. Here is one paragraph from that appeal: “In order to ensure the same high standard, you must ALWAYS work to this plan. Never leave him. Don't rely on your memory, no matter how many times you've worked the plan. It is not hard. If you always follow instructions, you will never fail."

TWI Service representatives demanded strict adherence to lesson plans. Trainers were required to strictly follow the manuals or they would lose their teaching privileges. The use of standard teaching materials ensured the required quality of training even by trainers who had no experience in teaching adults.

3.4.5. Duration of classes

During the first period of “pilot” training projects, TWI specialists selected the following time-related course parameters that became the standard for all years of active training in this program:

• Duration of training for one training block - 10 hours
• The training consists of five two-hour sessions
• A two-hour lesson is held without interruption.
• No more than one lesson is held per day (there should be time for independent training on the educational material, so that the content “fits” into your head)
• Training for one training block should not last more than two weeks

3.4.6. Band size

The authors of the teaching methodology determined the optimal size of the training group: no less than 9 and no more than 11 people. This is due to the implementation of the principle of “Learning through action”. In the classroom, after studying a portion of theoretical material, it is consolidated in practice. Then, after the lesson, supervisors independently practice reinforcing the training material at their workplaces, and at the next lesson they tell the group about their experience and receive feedback from colleagues and the trainer. If the group is less than 9 people, then, firstly, it is not rational from the point of view of using the coach’s potential and, secondly, there will be too little feedback from the group members. If there are more than 11 people in the group, there will not be enough time to listen to each participant and discuss their results.

4. Continuation of the story

It is very difficult to reconstruct events that took place seventy years ago. Especially in Japan. And to see the underlying causes of these events, their driving forces, is almost impossible. Especially from Russia, having access to only a few books and articles from the USA. The story of how
The TWI program ended up in 1949 in Japan, which was destroyed after the Second World War, which is incredibly interesting to me. But practically unknown. And there is information about what happened next.

Here's what Jim Huntzinger has to say. On the initiative of the American occupation administration, Lowell Mellon, director of TWI Inc., and three of his colleagues arrived in Japan in 1949. Mellon was a TWI instructor during World War II. Their task is to transfer TWI technology to the defeated Japanese. Over the course of 6 months, they train 35 “senior trainers” and prepare the basis for the dissemination of the TWI Program. The Japanese embraced TWI enthusiastically, and after the departure of a group of Americans, several government agencies continued to promote TWI within the Japanese industry.

And the principle of plurality, or multiplier effect, worked in full force in Japan! By 1995, nearly 100,000 TWI certified instructors had been trained, and the total number of managers, instructors, and employees trained was nearly 10 million. Here I will ask the reader to look ahead and read Section 6. The Hidden Power of TWI.

Those millions of young, promising managers who passed through TWI in the fifties of the last century became in the sixties and seventies the middle and top management of the Japanese industry, full participants in the “Japanese economic miracle.” And they contributed to the creation of new approaches to production management - such as Kaizen, Lean, TPS.

“Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran and other American experts rightly deserve a place in history for their significant contributions to the industrial development of Japan. However, training under the TWI Program introduced by the occupation authorities after World War II may have made an even greater contribution. This program has truly had a profound influence on the way Japanese managers think and practice: many management practices that are considered “Japanese” have their roots in TWI.” So wrote Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder in their famous 1993 article “Training, Continuous Improvement, and Human Relations: The American TWI Program and the Japanese Management Style.”

Masaaki Imai, in his book Gemba Kaizen, echoes this assessment and continues: “In many Japanese companies, successful completion of the TWI course has become mandatory for promotion to middle management. The TWI program has taught generations of Japanese managers three concepts: the importance of human relationships and people's involvement; the methodology and value of continuous improvement of processes and products; benefit from a scientific and rational approach to managing people and operations based on the plan-do-see method.

In general, TWI is fine in Japan. Here in Russia - no way. TWI for domestic management is a big “blank spot”. What about the rest of the world? If we talk about the USA and Europe, TWI is not dead and, it seems, interest in it has only been growing in the last 10-15 years. This is evidenced by a large number of recently published books and Internet resources. This is evidenced by the regularly held annual TWI summits. For example, a joint summit of HR and TWI specialists is scheduled to take place in May 2016.

5. Connections

It is generally accepted that the TWI Program became the basis for the branches of management that grew in Japan after World War II and spread throughout the world. We are talking about the following concepts:

• TQM, Total Quality Management - Total management based on quality,
• Kaizen – Continuous Improvement, continuous improvement methodology
• TPS, Toyota Production System – Toyota Production System
• LeanLean

The root role of TWI is already visible from the titles of books and articles on this topic:

• "TWI is the basis of Lean"
• “The roots of Lean. TWI: the origins of Japanese management and Kaizen"
• “TWI – the missing element of Lean?”
• "Learning Lessons from TWI: Standardized Work, Continuous Improvement and Teamwork"

The objectives of this article do not include a detailed analysis of the connections between each block of the TWI Program and management concepts that are relevant today, in particular, with Lean and Kaizen approaches and tools. However, in the depths of the Internet, I came across an interesting presentation by John Shook, where he analyzes in detail the impact of TWI on Toyota. It is known that Toyota is one of the first Japanese companies that immediately, from the beginning of the 50s, introduced TWI for a long time and in full. In Fig. Figure 3 shows one of the key slides of the presentation. It is curious that among the 13 factors that influenced the formation of Toyota, Shook put TWI in first place!

Rice. 3. Some key factors that influenced Toyota

What exactly did Toyota management take from TWI? According to the author of the presentation, these are:

If we try to identify the main influences of TWI on modern management concepts, then we can probably draw such connections. The Work Training block was the predecessor to the Standardized Work tool in Lean. In addition, an independent direction has appeared: “On the Job Training”, OJT: “On-the-Job Training” with its own, more developed, methodology, with its own literature. The Kaizen continuous improvement methodology grew from the “Working Methods” block. And the “Working Relations” block (together with the “Work Training” block) advanced management in a “humanistic” direction. In 1981, T. Asozu’s book “Human Production According to Konosuke Matsushita” was published in Japan. The content of the book is based on the seven “keys” of human production:

6. Hidden PowerTWI

Any activity has direct and indirect results. “They cut down the forest and the chips fly.” The felled tree is a direct result. Chips are an indirect, by-product. There are even less observable effects - strengthening the heart, lungs, and lumberjack muscles. The goal is usually direct results, but by-products may be more important, especially in the medium to long term.

It appears that in the case of the TWI phenomenon, the indirect effects of supervisor training are much more important than the direct ones. Direct results are, in fact, three developed skills:

• Ability to train ordinary employees to work using a special algorithm
• Ability to improve work processes using a special algorithm
• The ability to prevent and resolve industrial and interpersonal conflicts using special rules and algorithms.

Skills are supported by personal pocket cards with rules and algorithms, which are always “at hand” for the manager.

What could be indirect learning outcomes? Let's take a closer look at what is happening in the supervisor's head, in his “picture of the world” while studying in the TWI Program. Let us recall the two main methodological principles of the Program: learning through activity and learning at the enterprise. As a result of specially organized active activity in his work environment, in contacts with his employees, with subsequent analysis in the group of the actions of his own and his colleagues, the supervisor encounters unexpected things:

• He begins to understand how complex other people working next to him are.
• He sees how difficult it is to get another person to perform simple actions, from his, the supervisor’s, point of view.
• It turns out that he physically cannot know all the subtleties of the work performed by all his subordinates
• He notices what unexpected reasons for him there may be in the behavior of another person
• It suddenly becomes clear to him how easy it is to be misunderstood and how easy it is to understand a subordinate “in the wrong way.”
• He finds himself in a situation that is unthinkable for him, when he turns out to be exactly wrong, when his point of view on some production situation is one-sided and erroneous.
• He discovers how many subtleties, details, and tricks there can be even in an elementary operation
• He realizes that it is necessary to improve processes with those who carry them out, but working on improvements is possible if people respect you, but for this you must respect them
• He is faced with the fact that attention and respect for an employee is not the phrase “I respect you,” but difficult everyday work, consisting of very specific elements
• It turns out that the implementation of any improvement depends on many people, so you need to be able to listen and hear them, and be able to negotiate

This list could go on. If you try to highlight the main thing from all the “insights” of the average supervisor, it will probably turn out something like this:

• All people are different, and everyone has their own truth, their own “picture of the world,” their own knowledge and skills.
• I might be wrong. Easily.
• Managing is more about listening than talking.

These are indirect results of a supervisor completing the TWI Program. And they are fundamentally important. If after training a manager comes to approximately the same conclusions, he has changed as a person! Now, in any work or life situation, he will behave in accordance with this new understanding of people, himself and the essence of leadership. He will no longer make many management mistakes. The groups usually recruit fairly young and promising foremen and foremen. And these acquired basic things will remain with them for the rest of their career. And when they become mid- and senior-level managers, the inoculation of TWI's management culture will stay with them.

The main learning outcome of the Program TWI – change in the personality, “picture of the world” of the supervisor, reaching a higher level of culture of thinking and culture of communication. It is no coincidence that when monitoring training results, TWI specialists recorded not only improved performance indicators, but also improved communication, improved teamwork, increased cohesion, and corporate spirit. If you take a closer look at the content of any of the three TWI methods, you will find that they are all based on respect for people. For example, the slogan of the first training block is “If the employee has not learned, then the instructor has not taught.” What is read in this statement? “If you work poorly, this does not mean that you are bad, that you are to blame. We, your leaders, did not finish this.”

A shift in the thinking of a novice leader from an authoritarian paradigm (“I’m in charge - I know better”) to a collaborative paradigm (people are different, I’m no better than others, and only equal, partnerships give breakthrough results) is not obvious, but perhaps the main result the TWI project, the secret of its success and long life.

Here are a few excerpts from the final questionnaires of the participants in my training in the “Job Training” block:

• I realized how important it is to hear, understand and accept a person, and not just yourself
• The training was not intrusive and at first did not promise the stunning effect that my worldview received
• I understood a lot for myself - feedback, training, mutual understanding and much more.
• Training is very useful from the point of view of understanding myself (am I thinking and reasoning correctly?)
• The vision of people in general has changed
• It's horrible. I realized that I taught people wrong for four years
• Training has completely changed the worldview in terms of learning. I completely reconsidered my approaches to work, as well as to children and family.

Here are the learning outcomes (besides mastering the educational material itself) that supervisors note after the “Work Methods” block:

• Understanding the importance of group work on improvements
• Understanding the importance of communication between departments and exchange of experience
• Understanding that there is always room for improvement
• Understanding the “internal supplier – internal consumer” relationship between related departments

Patrick Graupp, a well-known TWI specialist, writes in the article “The Human Element of TWI”: “Lean in the United States is justifiably criticized for its total emphasis on processes and methods, when the main thing is overlooked: the importance of people - what Toyota calls respect for people. Creating an organization that truly respects its people before implementing production system tools is a lesson that most organizations miss. Without the passion and support of the people actually doing the work, we cannot be sure that the necessary changes are happening and being sustained... People are not machines and TWI teaches leaders how to engage the hearts and minds of people on every job - no matter how complex or simple and small."

The concept of humanism in industry was one of the most popular ideas adopted by the Japanese from TWI. The idea that good management included respect for subordinates was revolutionary for Japanese management at that time. “TWI was able to teach the Japanese that good human relations is a good business practice that can destroy the authoritarian management traditions that were widespread in Japan before and during the war.”

7. Conclusion

1. The TWI program was initially developed for the needs of material production. However, it is almost completely applicable to service sector enterprises. It is enough to change a few training examples.
2. Training under the TWI Program has its own value. After training, the management of the enterprise receives a community of lower-level managers who begin to work with staff more skillfully. But such training is even more important if management is planning organizational development projects. TWI helps top management create directly at the production site, at the level of ordinary employees, a critical mass of “agents of change” who are ready and able to accept the proposed changes, implement them and maintain the achieved results.
3. Thanks:

• I learned about TWI from Sergei Smirnov.
• Vyacheslav Boltrukevich suggested that I create a course on TWI for the MBA-PS programs at the Moscow State University Graduate School of Business.
• Yuri Rubanik, Vyacheslav Boltrukevich and Georgy Leibovich supported and fueled my interest in TWI and provided me with access to materials on this topic.
• Mikhail Kalinin easily and selflessly gave me original teaching materials.

Thank you, colleagues!

8. Sources

1. Imai M. Gemba Kaizen: the path to reducing costs and improving quality. M., 2005.
2. Krymov A. “Business sergeants”: The problem of line managers.
3. A. Dinero, Training Within Industry – The Foundation of Lean, New York: Productivity Press, 2005.
4. Implementing TWI: Creating and Managing a Skills-Based Culture. 2010. by Patrick Graupp, Robert J. Wrona
5. Learn By Doing: The Story of Training Within Industry by Walter Dietz and Betty W. Bevens. 1970



Evgeniy Ksenchuk
Novosibirsk, May 2016
[email protected]