Session Title

TWI Problem Solving Training: A Comprehensive Approach to TWI Implementation

Session Abstract

In the spring of 1951, Lowell Mellen and his associates from TWI Inc. began teaching TWI classes in Japan under contract with the U.S. military occupation. Mellen had been a district representative of the TWI Service in Cleveland during the war, and he formed TWI Inc. when the service disbanded in 1945 at the end of World War II. After successfully planting the three original J-Programs in Japan, TWI Inc. was asked by the Japanese government in 1956 if they could teach supervisors how to solve workplace problems. In response, Mellen and his associates developed a new TWI program called Problem Solving (PS) Training.

This module will introduce the PS program and demonstrate how it is as vital today as when it helped Japanese industry rebuild after the war. In particular, it will show the close relationship between TWI-PS and Toyota’s problem solving steps used today and reveal how techniques such as root-cause analysis were an integral part of the original TWI offerings. It will compare the two approaches and show why TWI became such an integral part of the Toyota Production System.

Since TWI-PS specifically uses the three TWI methodologies for the purpose of solving problems, companies already employing one or more of the TWI skills can leverage these supervisory abilities and gain even more value from them. This module will show how implementation of TWI-PS can provide a good opportunity to refresh, review, and reinvigorate the use of the TWI skills in workplaces with a specific target—problem solving.
 

Specific Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this session, participants will learn…

• The 4-Step Method to solving problems using TWI's JI, JR and JM components

• How to isolate the root cause of a problem using the "Chain of Causation" analysis technique

• The distinction between "Mechanical" and "People" problems

• How to leverage existing TWI skills in a comprehensive approach to problem solving

Target Audience

Presenter Biography

Patrick began his training career at the SANYO Electric Corporate Training Center in Japan after graduating with Highest Honors from Drexel University in 1980. There he learned to deliver TWI and other training to prepare employees for assignment outside of Japan. He in turn was also transferred to a compact disc fabrication plant in Indiana where he obtained manufacturing experience before returning to Japan to become Programs Master Trainer delivering TWI around the world for Sanyo. Patrick earned an MBA from Boston University during this time and later published a book on how to teach Japanese staff to implement Job Methods Training outside of Japan. He was then promoted to the head of Human Resources for SANYO North America Corp. in San Diego, CA where he settled.

Patrick took vacation time to deliver a pilot project in 2001 to reintroduce TWI in the US, and again in 2002 to reintroduce the full TWI Program at ESCO Turbine Technologies-Syracuse. The results at ESCO encouraged Patrick to leave SANYO in 2002 and promote TWI training in the U.S. and document how to deliver the program as he was taught in Japan, which he described in his book The TWI Workbook: Essential Skills for Supervisors, a Shingo Research and Professional Publication Prize Recipient for 2007. Since then, in conjunction with the TWI Institute, he has developed hundreds of TWI trainers in a variety of industries throughout the US and in other countries. He is currently working on a new book for Productivity Press on TWI implementation.