Job Instruction—Review of The Basics

Pocket Card from 1945 to guide Job Instruction

Imagine your organization had every supervisor able to teach their people core jobs, improve the work in their area, and lead their people effectively. Such widespread supervisory capability would improve productivity, quality, safety, and morale for almost all organizations.

The Bureau of Training, part of World War II’s War Manpower Commission, developed courses and methods to build such supervisory capability in the Training Within Industry (TWI) program.

The TWI framework proposes three supervisory skills in addition to core knowledge of the work they supervise and their organization’s policies and practices. The Bureau of Training developed three 10-hour courses to teach these skills:  Job Instruction, Job Methods, and Job Relations.

Last month, I took a Job Instruction course, which aims to teach supervisors how to instruct someone to do a job correctly, safely, and conscientiously. The course in 2025 closely follows the course as given in 1945.

Job Breakdown sheet

We spent much of our class time and most of the homework between sessions breaking down a job we would demonstrate in the class. 

To break down a job, the supervisor chunks it into a few important steps. For each important step, the supervisor considers one or more key points conveying unique know-how. The developers of Job Instruction initially used a two-column job breakdown template to make it easy for the supervisor to capture important steps and key points. The supervisor uses the job breakdown sheet to guide instruction, which is 1-1 with a worker.

The modern job breakdown template adds a third column to record reasons for each key point.

The added column seems critical to good instruction.  Helping someone understand the reasons for an action strengthens memory and prepares a person to adapt to new situations.

Here’s the fourth revision of the job breakdown sheet I used in my demonstration.  The course instructor urged us to use simple words and to skip over items that could be assumed to be common knowledge.  We learned that the job breakdown sheet provides notes for the supervisor; it is not a full-blown procedure.

Practice using the Four-Step Method

Our JI teacher challenged us to use a real job that could be done in 60 seconds or less.

Each person in the class demonstrated the four-step “How To Instruct” method as they taught a person a job.   The JI teacher and the other class participants evaluated the demonstration using the pocket card points.

My classmates all worked in manufacturing or assembly operations. They demonstrated measuring parts with a micrometer, placing components on a circuit board, and using personal protective equipment.

What could I do when my day job is improvement coaching?

Using my job breakdown sheet, I taught my friend Claude Kazansky how to use a ruler to place a median on a time-ordered plot.

To comply with the 60-second time limit, I restricted the job to a chart with an odd number of points, which allows a one-step assignment of the median rank in the first important step.

Details of How to Instruct, Steps 2 and 3

Using the job breakdown sheet as a guide, the instructor presents the operation three times, as outlined by the pocket card we used in our class:

• “Tell, show and illustrate one Important Step at a time”

• “Do it again stressing Key Points”

• “Do it again stating reasons for Key Points”

The person learning the job then presents the operation at least four times.  First, the person does the job as well as possible without saying anything.  Second, the person does the job and states each important step.  Third, the person adds the key points.  Finally, the person does the job, stating important steps, key points, and reasons for each key point. 

The instructor observes and offers corrections as needed.  The structured presentations let the instructor know whether the person learning the work knows the job.

While the four How To Instruct steps apply conceptually to any job, the specific way we learned to present an operation and try out performance doesn’t fit every job.  The rigorous approach to Steps 2 and 3 applies best to jobs with few decision branches.  The World War II defense production factories served by the Bureau of Training were dominated by repetitive fabrication or assembly jobs well aligned with the rigor of Steps 2 and 3.

Recommendation

Anyone interested in standard work for supervisors will benefit from exploring the Training Within Industry approach. If you do any instruction, you will benefit from an introduction to the Job Instruction practice.  The TWI Institute presented the Job Instruction course I took.  My teacher, Agata Pawlukojc, managed our virtual class of participants in the United Kingdom and the United States with care and insight.