Kaliko,

Thanks for the indepth repsonse. Can you provide:

1) Companies that would be willing to share their experience using the system you described?

2) What books are available that describe the system you just outlined in greater detail?

Thanks again...

A parting thought:

My skepticism for modern day management techniques is for what I think good reason. First, I know that researching the JI program from the 1940s through the 1970s in the U.S., the program was improved. The Japanese probably did a better job of institutionalizing the standard use of this in their industry though.

This is my point: there are several points of time in industry where OJT (again, please look at this term in a very general sense, try not to filtre it with your respective definition) was deemed successful by both professionals and the public alike. Herbert and Allen were early pioneers along with lesser known industrialists.

I wasn't until WWII where OJT came into stride. And then it "seemed" to go away. What I mean by this is that OJT was a MAJOR driver behind the war production effort. Stalin himself said we couldn't have won the war without the American war production machine. Why did we not continue the momentum? And if the program was so good, why didn't we keep it up?

To the best of my knowledge, which is limited, there is no equivalent successful OJT moment or movement between the end of WWII and now in the United States. Please share if you can find something of equivalence to the TWI National effort or, my opinion; the only thing we can put a finger on is the Japanese management techiques and their relentless efforts behind training & development, OJT being at its core, which we taught them using the TWI. Toyota is about to unseat the big three, and they learned everything they know from us. They just perfected it at a very simple level.

And that Kaliko, (after so many response, I think you pulled it out of me!) is the point! I hear what you are saying...OJT has been improved in the books, in concept and most certainly in a FEW factories...but I believe our overall management skills have not because the OJT concept has evolved into an overcomplicated system that is an administrative management function, not a simple, supervisory or shop floor function. Remember, most people, not all but most would read your description of OJT and say to themselves: I don't have time for that.

Why haven't we seen the OJT success of years gone by? Why isn't OJT at the core of every business? Why do we here managers speaking of delegation and accountability and not OJT as a core supervisory competency? Again, I ask, if OJT has been improved, why is training the #1 problem I hear in every factory I visit? I think that the overcomplicated nature of our modern management theory is to blame. This is the reason why I think JIT is a better system. Its simple, anyone can use it and it works.

Hi Lundbird,

Some companies include: Nestle, Boeing, Precision CastParts, Northwest Airlines, United Airlines, Life Technologies (now part of Amgen), Safeco Life Insurance, Cadbury Chocolate, US Airways, Washington Mutual, Makino Machine Tool, Nielsen Compny, Dana Corporation, Qualcomm, Genetics Institute, Utilix, Banta Corp, TWA, SMS Technologies, Cooperative Power, U.S. Army, AlliedSignal Aerospace, KLM, Pemco, and others.

As for the book, I wrote a book spelling out my system is detail enough for anyone to read and be able to implement - "Training On the Job," published by ASTD Press, 2002.

I don't know if you were doing you JIT in the mid 90's or not, but it was at that time that structured OJT was ready to REALLY take off. Ronald Jacobs and also Rothwell and Kazanas, published their books on structured OJT, citing compelling new research as to the powerfulness of the system in addressing all types of learning issues - not just the classic manufacturing industry They all three strongly advocated for more exposure to the methodology in the training community, hoping to make structured OJT "the way we do business."

BUT, about that same time, technology had improved to the point that e-learning hit the stage, and everyone jumped on that bandwagon, leaving structured OJT to flounder on its own. This was especially noted in the training industry leader organizations like ASTD who abruptly in 2001 stopped publishing their Technical Training Magazine - which was the primary venue for OJT articles, and they also abruptly stopped the Technical Skills Training Conferences. Along with that, there was a real cutback in the overall exposure OJT got at conferences themselves - all conferences including ISPI and Training Magazine. It simply is not glitzy as is e-learning. In addition, OJT is not pushed because so few of the training profession recognize its value. And of course a huge reason it's not pushed by organizations like ASTD is because it does not generate much income for them. Factory employees normally don't go to the training conferences, with the exception of a few supervisors or technical trainers. And every time I meet one of them at a conferrence, they say to me that there is nothing at the conference for them. It's a real shame.

So, it's an uphill battle right now convincing people that it really does provide answers to so many problems plaguing the industry today. I guess it's up to people like you and me to keep pushing it. There still is obviously a big market for it though.

There is some merit to what you say about the fact that people might say my system takes a long time. But most of the time though, they are attracted to the team aspect of it, especially in plants that routinely use teams to do the work, and want to use a team approach to the training. And I always find a pilot team to start with and just concentrate on them. I work with the supervisors and their people on the floor. I don't generally bother with the general management of the company first. I find a supervisor who is gung-ho and excited about the process and has a need for the training. Then I meet with the people on the floor and get them excited about it. And from there on, it is smooth sailing with that pilot team. Generally once the pilot team produces the first results, word spreads to other areas on the floor and it takes on a life of it's own and spreads across the plant. Once the other supervisors see how much the other workers like it, they want to do it to. The workers themselves are usually the first to spread the word to workers in other areas. Word eventually filters all the way up through the upper management ranks.

I think some kind of national system would be great. And I certainly agree that OJT should be a core supervisory competency. If we could ever reach that point, think of the cost savings, not to mention the increased competency of the employees.