About the TWI Institute

By years of experience in process optimization and the introduction of continuous improvement processes, we see many organizations struggle to maintain previously reached results. Again and again revitalizations are necessary to maintain the process. It often seems that continuous improvement stands far from daily practice as well. By supporting the supervisor in his or her daily work, the organization will become able to exploit creativity and knowledge of workers and remain successful.
The primary goal of the TWI Institute is integrating the TWI methods in organizations, in such a way that they become able to permanently use knowledge and creativity of all workers to be successful.
The TWI Institute will pursue its goal by: sharing knowledge of successful implementations; organizing a common platform for sharing knowledge; and by training and guiding organizations in the use of the TWI methods.

Background

The original Training Within Industry (TWI) Program was developed around 1940 in
the U.S. and played an important role in boosting the industrial production to the level necessary to win the war. Through a train-the-trainer program, supervisors were taught to train and lead their people in the right way. Together with Deming’s studies on quality control, the TWI training played a key role in the successful post-war development of the Japanese industry.

From 1950 Toyota used TWI to train its employees as part of the emerging Toyota Production System, the world’s first Lean Manufacturing Program. TWI is an integral element of today’s Lean Manufacturing and Kaizen strategies. The TWI Methods complete Lean solutions by training supervisors in the skills they need to create a climate for change, improvement of methods and standardization of tasks.

From 2001 the TWI Institute of the United States brought the program for supervisors into the spotlight again and from 2013 it is also possible to gain knowledge en exchange experiences on TWI though TWI Instituut Nederland BV and TWI Institut Deutschland GmbH.