What is Standard Work? (Steps to Standard Work / What is TWI?)

Standard Work. Standard Work, Takt Time, TWI, Training Within Industry, Job Methods, Job Instruction, Job Relations. Presented by EMS Consulting Group Inc.:

#opexminute #leanmanufacturingmanagement #kaizen #leanmanufacturing #standardization #standardwork

Welcome to today’s edition of the OpEx Minute, presented by EMS Consulting Group. Today we will be talking about Standard Work. Standard Work is foundational to Operational Excellence because it helps us to achieve basic stability. The concept of standard work has its roots in a methodology known as Training Within Industry or TWI. TWI was invented by the U.S. Military during WW2 as a way to ramp up production quickly with a lot of new workers. TWI includes three key elements: job methods, job instruction, and job relations. Job methods is the basis for standard work.
The idea of standard work is to create a repeatable work method that becomes the foundation for kaizen or continuous improvement. To create standard work for a process, we need to identify the customer or volume requirements of the process. How often to we need to produce one unit or service one customer? Then, we need to determine the appropriate work methods (timing and sequencing of tasks), associated staffing or labor needs, materials or information needed, and equipment needed. This would involve observing and timing all of the job steps; calculating the number of people needed, examining machine or equipment capacity and calculating how much equipment is needed, and determine materials and information required.
After we develop standard work for a process and put it into place, we audit it to determine what problems exist in following it consistently. Do adjustments to the process, layout or other aspect of the operation need to be made?
Standard work is a very basic but important element of operational excellence.