What is TWI
TWI, which stands for Training Within Industry, can be translated as “Training Within Industry”, covering both Manufacturing and Services.
TWI is a training program that develops managerial capability, specifically designed for middle and front-line management levels (e.g., Managers, Line Leaders, Supervisors, Team Leaders, etc.).
TWI has a proud history of over 70 years, having been applied across many cultures and various industries.
TWI programs originated in the United States military in the 1940s. It was a national program deployed in the U.S. to train manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare personnel during World War II. TWI is recognized for its significant contribution to workforce development, especially for front-line supervisors during wartime.
Afterwards, TWI was introduced and successfully implemented in Japan starting in the 1950s (during Japan’s post-war reconstruction). TWI is recognized as a foundational program that helped establish the core principles of Lean Manufacturing System and the Toyota Production System.
TWI is considered an interesting “secret” that explains why many non-Toyota companies often struggle when attempting to implement Lean. One key reason identified is that Toyota trained its workforce with TWI programs very early (before Lean models or the Lean house were even conceptualized by scholars).
This early foundation enabled Toyota to build a strong management system at the front-line level. It also became the fundamental basis for its continuous improvement journey based on People – Standardization – Continuous Improvement, which is often difficult for non-Toyota organizations to achieve.
TWI has also been successfully developed and applied in countries such as Europe, New Zealand, South Korea, Malaysia, and many others since the 1950s–1960s.
There have been numerous studies on TWI and the foundations of Lean or TPS in the U.S. during the 1990s–2000s, aiming to explore the deeper core values of Lean. TWI has been identified as a critical missing piece. Today, TWI continues to be widely developed around the world in both manufacturing and service industries.
If you are interested, you may refer to:
- The Roots of Lean, Training Within Industry – The Original of Kaizen, Jim Huntzinger (2002)
- Basic Stability is Basic to Lean Manufacturing Success, Art Smalley
- TWI core values video (Nixon Gear – YouTube)
- TWI Institute (US) website with many reference resources
