Shaving a yak and where kaizen comes from

Yak shaving can lead to useless work, but sometimes it can lead to very interesting facts… like finding out where Kaizen comes from.

My colleague Machiel Groeneveld asked my to review a paper he is writing on Lean. Amongst other things he mentiones Standard Work as a possible improvement on the current way we do Agile projects. Although Standard Work sounds pretty obvious I decided to google around and see what literature was available about this practice. (the first step in shaving the yak…)
The google result led me to this paper from Jim Huntzinger about Standard Work. In that paper Training within Industry (TWI) is extensively discussed. I never heard of TWI but it took my attention and I decided to read more about it (step 2 in the yak shaving).
According to wikipedia TWI was introduced during WWII by the US Department of War. It consist of 4 programs (I suggest you read the above wikipedia link if you want all details of these programs):

- Job Instructions
- Job Methods
- Job Relations
- Program Developement

Job Methods is the one that took my attention. Wikipedia states that Job Methods is

a course that taught workers to objectively evaluate the efficiency of their jobs and to methodically evaluate and suggest improvements. The course also worked with a job breakdown, but students were taught to analyze each step and determine if there were sufficient reason to continue to do it in that way by asking a series of pointed questions. If they determined some step could be done better by Eliminating, Combining, Rearranging, or Simplifying, they were to develop and apply the new method by selling it to the “boss” and co-workers, obtaining approval based on Safety, Quality, Quantity, and Cost, standardizing the new method, and giving “credit where credit is due.”

That sounds a lot like Kaizen doesn’t it? Although TWI was abandoned after the war in the US, its practices were well received and adapted by the Japanese and the Toyota Motor Corporation in particular.

If you want to read more about TWI and the apparent revival it is going through you can read all about it here: http://www.twi-institute.com/. Especially for the Agilist among us it sounds very familiar.