Training Within Industry History
Training Within Industry was developed in 1940 by a group of US planners who realized that going to war would create a massive labor shortage. The US TWI program launched across 600 US manufacturing companies during World War II to rapidly onboard new staff (mostly women with no manufacturing experience) who would be responsible for maintaining safety standards, quality controls, and efficient production processes.
After the war, TWI made its way to Japan to support the country’s rebuilding effort. By 1948, Toyota began improving on Training Within Industry, creating Lean processes for defining standard work and driving continuous, sustained improvements.
