“A supervisor gets results through people.” These words were written almost 70 years ago when the TWI training programs were created to help develop a new workforce that would go on to win the war of production in WWII. Coaching, in turn, is the way to develop people through leading them to success in their work. These two endeavors go hand in hand. Leaders accomplish their responsibilities by coaching people to reach high levels of achievement in their daily work.

Underlying and, in multiple ways, comprising the good coaching skills of communication, teaching, motivation and inspiring others are some fundamental practices that are timeless and consistently effective. Moreover, these routines can be mastered when presented in an easy to learn format and practiced using a “learn by doing” approach. The TWI methods of Job Instruction, Job Relations and Job Methods Improvement embody these practices and give front line supervisors the basic skills they need to successfully coach their people so they can deliver extraordinary results.

In this session we will look at what the TWI methods are and the role they play in making front line leaders effective coaches. We will see how these seminal programs planted the seeds for the good coaching models in what we know of today as Lean. In following with the “learn by doing” approach, we will break down and teach an actual job following the TWI method to demonstrate what strong coaching can look like in real practice. This will create a lively discussion on whether coaching, along with its older cousin “leadership,” is after all just an innate trait specific to certain individuals or something that can be learned by all.

• In this session you will learn what the TWI methods are and where they came from
• In this session you will learn how the TWI methods created a foundation for good coaching skills in Lean
• In this session you will learn some basics on how TWI breaks down and effectively teaches a job to a learner
• In this session you will learn how the TWI methods create a synergistic combination of essential skills for effective coaches in Lean

Patrick Graupp

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 where he became SANYO’s TWI Programs Master Trainer, delivering TWI around the world. Patrick earned an MBA from Boston University during this time and was later 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. The results encouraged him to leave SANYO in 2002 to deliver the TWI program in the US as he was taught in Japan and which he described in his book The TWI Workbook: Essential Skills for Supervisors, a Shingo Research and Professional Publication Prize Recipient for 2007. Working with the TWI Institute, Patrick developed standardized training materials to certify trainers to deliver the TWI modules as was done by the TWI Service during WWII. The TWI Institute has since trained hundreds of trainers across the U.S. and around the globe that led to his follow on book Implementing TWI: Creating and Managing a Skills Based Culture. 

Patrick has taught TWI to companies around the world both large and small. He is currently working extensively with healthcare organizations which led to his latest book, Getting to Standard Work in Health Care: Using TWI to Create a Foundation for Quality Care which was published in August, 2012.