Job Methods Kata: Kipling’s Kata

The Training Within Industry (TWI) Job Methods (JM) training teaches, in the most effective way possible, the understanding of how the Kipling method, also known as the 5W1H, ECRS (what, why, where, when, who, how or how much; eliminate, combine, rearrange, simplify), works (Figure 8.1). The goal of the JM course is to provide the trainee a working knowledge of this analytical approach. This method is still a part of the Toyota Business Practice (TBP) training curriculum and has important specialized applications.2 As we have repeatedly declared throughout this book, the utility of any acquired skill, including JM, will only manifest if practiced. We therefore include the TWI Job Methods skill as the Seventh Kata in our desire to see its potential fully realized.