Introduction to Job Methods

This opening section introduces Job Methods (JM) and explains where it fits in the work of a supervisor. Job Methods is a practical, four-step plan for improving the way a job is done — for producing greater quantities of quality product in less time by making better use of the people, machines, materials, and methods a supervisor already has. It is one of the three "J" programs of Training Within Industry, alongside Job Instruction and Job Relations.

By the end of this section, you should understand:

• what Job Methods is and why it matters,
• where improving methods fits among the five needs of every supervisor,
• that improvement is part of the job — and that the idea is not new,
• what the goal of Job Methods actually is, and what it is not,
• why the best source of improvement ideas is the supervisor and the operators.

1What Job Methods is

Job Methods is a standard plan for improving the way a job is done.

The plan is not a theory and not an engineering study. It is a plain, step-by-step way for a supervisor to take an existing job, question every part of it, and put a better method to work. It is one of the three "J" programs of Training Within Industry, alongside Job Instruction (how to teach a job) and Job Relations (how to lead people and handle problems with them).

This section keeps the broader history of Training Within Industry brief; that history — its origins, who developed it, and how it spread — is covered in the Training Within Industry guide. Here we keep only what is needed to understand Job Methods itself: improving methods is one of a supervisor's basic responsibilities, and there is a reliable way to do it.

2Improving methods is one of the five needs

Every supervisor, to get good results, must meet five needs. The first two are about what a supervisor must know; the last three are about what a supervisor must be able to do.

Need 1 · Knowledge

Knowledge of the work

The materials, machines, tools, and processes of the area.

Need 2 · Knowledge

Knowledge of responsibilities

Policies, agreements, schedules, rules, and the limits of the supervisor's authority.

Need 3 · Skill

Skill in instructing

Teaching a person to do a job correctly, safely, and conscientiously — this is Job Instruction.

Need 4 · Skill

Skill in improving methods

Making better use of the manpower, machines, and materials on hand — this is Job Methods.

Need 5 · Skill

Skill in leading

Working with people and handling problems with them — this is Job Relations.

A supervisor who knows the work and the responsibilities, and who can instruct and lead, still has not done the whole job. Without skill in improving methods, the area runs the same way it always has, and any gains depend on people working harder. Job Methods supplies the missing skill: a way to keep finding and applying better methods as a normal part of running the area.

3Improvement is part of the job — and not new

It is tempting to treat improvement as something special — a project, an initiative, a thing done by engineers when there is time. It is not.

Most of the progress we enjoy today is the result of improvements in production methods, made over time by practical people doing ordinary work. These results were not handed down by experts. They were developed and applied by working supervisors and operators, one improvement at a time. Ordinarily such improvements are made slowly. The purpose of Job Methods is to make them easier to make, and to make them more often, because that is what a competitive situation now demands.

The plan itself is not new either. It is a streamlined and simplified version of principles that were tried and proved long ago, in thousands of plants, by practical industry people. That matters when someone resists a change as "newfangled" — these are old, proven ideas, organized into four steps.

4The goal — and what it is not

The goal of Job Methods is stated plainly:

Read that carefully, because the second half is where Job Methods differs from the usual reaction to a production demand. The gains come from making better use of what you already have — not from new equipment, not from more people, and above all not from working harder or speeding anyone up.

This is worth stating bluntly. When a job is done in a hurry, the result is usually bad work, and bad work is the opposite of what Job Methods is for. Doing a job faster by rushing is not an improvement.

Improved methods give good results because production is increased by eliminating the unnecessary parts of the job and making the necessary parts easier and safer to do — not by asking people to run. A method that produces more and is easier and safer to perform is the aim every time.

5The best source of ideas

If improvement is part of the job and is to be done often, where do the ideas come from?

Everyone who runs a job has ideas about how it could be done better. Often those ideas have never been fully developed, written down, or put to work. Job Methods is built to draw them out and turn them into real changes — which is also why the operator who runs the job is brought into the improvement, not just informed of it afterward. An interested, involved worker is as important to the result as the idea itself.

This is the foundation for everything that follows. The four-step method in the sections ahead is simply a disciplined way to take what the people closest to the work already half-know and turn it into a better, safer, more productive way to do the job.