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Historical Success

Past

Since TWI the mission from the start in June 1940 was “to help industry to help itself to get out more materials than have ever been thought possible, and at constantly accelerating speed” to win a global war”, the fact that the Allied countries did in fact win a global war indicates TWI was successful in accomplishing its mission. The reason we know that is because the TWI founders had the foresight to monitor 600 of their client companies throughout the war to gather data to evaluate their performance. The following data from these 600 companies leaves no doubt that TWI contributed to winning the war of production even after having to start from scratch way behind the production capacity of the warring nations that had also stockpiled the materials of war knowing in advance they would be put to use.

86% increased production by at least 25%
100% reduced training time by 25% or more
88% reduced labor-hours by over 25%
55% reduced scrap by at least 25%
100% reduced grievances by more than 25%

 

When evaluating statistics, the question arises as to just what do these numbers really mean the actual contribution these companies contributed to the final outcome of the war. Since the greater majority of those companies monitored by the TWI Service were those who produced war materiel, let’s take a look at the role TWI had at Boeing to determine how these statistics translate into a more precise measure of the contribution TWI training actually made for Boeing to help “win a global war.” See story below.

Building the B17 at Boeing

Boeing had to rush the production of the 17 bomber in 1940 at a time when they didn’t even have a production facility. On top of that, the company had to manufacture the largest and most sophisticated bomber at the time with a workforce of 33,000 people one half of whom were made up of cowboys, wheat farmers, salmon fishermen, and lumberjacks. The other half were, for the most part, made up of Seattle-area housewives

With women workers doing direct work for the first time, Boeing engineers designed and constantly revised tools and processes to maximize worker productivity by minimizing strain and fatigue. System development was guided by a few principles:

  • Keep tools and materials in line workers’ hands
  • Keep both direct processes and support systems very simple to avoid confusion, and
  • Engineer the airplane for fast, efficient production

This in turn changed the roles of the supervisor who now had to solve problems fast in the workplace to keep production lines moving. With the pace of production and frequency of engineering changes, supervisors had to be on the shop floor checking and coaching constantly. Because they also had to show people how to do the work, supervisor training and knowledge of standard work instructions was doubly important.

Training Within Industry (TWI) was used to train supervisors on how to break down common industrial tasks into easily digested, easily mastered steps to train new people and also to cross-train employees to promote teamwork and for people to learn how to take on a broader responsibility within their work area. What effect did the combination of TWI and Lean have on the on the production of the B-17?

  • 60% reduction in man hours per airplane.
  • Fly-a way’s went from the initial quote of 75/mo. in 1941 to a peak of 364, one every 1.6 hours in March 1944.
  • Initial cost of $242,000 per plane in 1940 was reduced to a final cost of $139,254 in March 1944, 42.46% in 32 months

 

A quick look at Shipbuilding

  • Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Texas – 1945
  • 18,749 employees
  • Every supervisor was certified in one or more of the “J” programs
  • The company attributed the following results to TWI over a four year period:
Increase in production 45%
Reduction in tool breakage 75%
Reduction in training time 78%
Saving in manpower 45%
Reduction in scrap 69%
Reduction in accidents 69%

 

In the 2 years following the Battle of Midway at which both the US and the Japanese lost all but 2 carriers. After that battle was fought,

  • The Japanese shipbuilders launched 6 carriers.
  • During the same period, US shipbuilders launched:
    • 17 carriers, plus
    • 10 medium carriers, and
    • 86 escort carriers

"Such numbers, to be repeated in myriad categories of war materiel, spelled doom for Japan." *
* James Bradley, Flyboys (Boston: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown), 120.

Present

Toyota has been using TWI Training since 1951 and the company has projected to pass GM in sales in 2007 or 2008.

ESCO Turbine Technologies- Syracuse credits the TWI Job Instruction Program for reducing rework by 96% in a two year period and to maintain that high level of quality since.
case study

TWI - Training Within Industry
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