Summary: Putting It to Work
The whole improvement plan in one view, why skill comes from doing, and how to put Job Methods to work on a real job — this week, and the next.
This guide has walked through Job Methods from the ground up: why improvement is part of the supervisor's job, how a better method is found by questioning the present one, the four-step method, the breakdown and proposal sheets, how to develop and sell an improvement, and how to handle the resistance and resentment that stop good ideas. This closing section pulls those pieces back together and turns them toward one purpose — actually using the method on a real job, this week, and then again the next.
The method is not new. It was developed by practical industry people and proven on thousands of jobs, and it still works. What remains is for you to put it to work.
1The four steps on one page
Job Methods is the whole improvement plan the foreman used to improve the demonstration job — and it is no more than four steps, each with a short list of items beneath it. The whole method fits on one page:
- Break down the job. List every single detail of the present method — every motion, every inspection, every delay — exactly as the job is done now.
- Question every detail. Ask the six questions, in order, of each detail: Why is it necessary? What is its purpose? Where should it be done? When should it be done? Who is best qualified to do it? How is the best way to do it? Ask Why and What first to test necessity; ask How last.
- Develop the new method. Turn the answers into action, in order: Eliminate unnecessary details, Combine details where practical, Rearrange for a better sequence, and Simplify all necessary details. Work the ideas out with others and write the new method up.
- Apply the new method. Put the improvement to work: Sell the proposal to the boss and to the operators, get Approvals on safety, quality, quantity, and cost, Use the new method quickly and keep operators from slipping back, and give Credit where it is due.
The questions and the develop actions line up: Why? / What? → Eliminate · Where? / When? / Who? → Combine & Rearrange · How? → Simplify. That mapping is the engine of the whole method.
List every single detail of the present method — every motion, inspection, and delay.
Ask Why, What, Where, When, Who, How — in order — of each detail.
Eliminate, combine, rearrange, simplify — then work it out with others and write it up.
Sell, get approvals, use it quickly, and give credit where it is due.
Test necessity first; drop details that serve no purpose.
Find the best place, time, and person; cut handlings and back-tracking.
Asked last — make the necessary details easier and safer to do.
The four steps — Break down, Question, Develop, Apply — with the six questions (5W1H) feeding the four develop actions (Eliminate, Combine, Rearrange, Simplify) beneath them.
What to notice: the four steps are what most people remember, but they only work in order. Questioning before you have broken the job down, or developing before you have questioned, skips the very facts that make the improvement complete.
2One improvement a week
The plan exists for one reason: to make it easier to improve the jobs you are responsible for. It earns its keep only when it is used — and used regularly, not saved for the one big project.
One improvement each week would make any supervisor's job easier, reduce bottlenecks, and cut down the number of trouble jobs.
The arithmetic is plain. An improvement put to work today is worth far more than the same improvement made next year, because it pays back every day in between. Waiting kills more ideas than lack of brains. No supervisor can afford to be "too busy" to look for the next improvement — the competitive situation requires that we strive to make them every day, or fall behind.
Do not hunt for the hardest job or the one that will show the most startling result. Take a short job — perhaps the first one you think of, or the first you see as you walk through the department — and practice the method on it. The skill comes first; the ambitious jobs come later.
3Skill comes from learning by doing
Reading about Job Methods, or carrying the card in your pocket, will not make anyone good at it. Like the other supervisor skills, skill in improving methods is acquired by using the method on real jobs.
Skill in improving methods is a skill. It is developed by doing — by breaking down a real job and working it through — not by knowing the card.
This is why every session of the course ends with an assignment to go improve an actual job. Knowing the four steps and agreeing they make sense is not the same as being able to improve a job. The questioning attitude in particular has to be practiced: young people ask questions to get knowledge, and many of us stop questioning things too soon. Job Methods asks you to deliberately question every detail again — and that habit only forms with use.
Learning the four steps, nodding along, and then never breaking down a real job. The card is a reminder of a method you have practiced, not a substitute for practicing it. Improving methods is part of the daily job, and there is always a better way.
4Putting it to work
The way to start is to start. You do not need a perfect candidate or an ideal job — you need a real one.
- Pick a short job in your area. Choose something you need in greater quantity, or one that is giving you trouble. Keep it small enough to work through completely.
- Break it down. List every detail of the present method on the breakdown sheet — make the breakdown on the job, not from memory, and let the operator help you make it.
- Question every detail. Ask Why, What, Where, When, Who, and How of each detail, in order. Note the answers and any clues in the notes column; hold your flash ideas and keep questioning until a fuller idea develops.
- Develop the new method. Eliminate, combine, rearrange, and simplify — in that order — then work the result out with your boss, your peers, and the operators, and write it up as a proposal.
- Apply it. Sell the proposal, get the approvals, instruct the operators with Job Instruction, put the new method to work quickly, and give credit to everyone who helped.
Then do it again with the next job, and the next. If the first job yields no improvement, tackle another — but improving methods is a daily responsibility, and there is always a better way.
An interested, satisfied worker is just as important as the idea itself. Work improvements out with the operators rather than handing them down; one stolen idea will stop all the others, and the more credit you give, the more ideas come back.
5Where this fits
Job Methods is one piece of a larger picture, and it is worth seeing the whole.
Within the five needs of a good supervisor — knowledge of the work, knowledge of responsibilities, skill in instructing, skill in improving methods, and skill in leading — Job Methods develops skill in improving methods. It sits alongside two companion skills, each with its own method and its own guide in this set:
- Job Instruction — skill in instructing: how to teach a person to do a job correctly, safely, and conscientiously. Job Methods and Job Instruction work as a pair — once you have improved a method, you instruct the operators in it with Job Instruction so the new way actually takes hold.
- Job Relations — skill in leading: how to work with people and handle the problems that come up between them. Selling an improvement, working ideas out with operators, and giving proper credit all draw on the same people skills that Job Relations develops.
All three "J" programs grew out of Training Within Industry — the wartime program whose history, development, and spread to Japan and Toyota are covered in the Training Within Industry umbrella guide. That guide gives the context; this one gives the working detail of Job Methods.
The analytical habit Job Methods builds does not stay in the course. The questioning attitude — Why is this detail necessary? — and the eliminate, combine, rearrange, and simplify analysis carry naturally into the work of standardized work and kaizen, where the same instinct to question every detail and remove waste is put to use every day.
Job Methods (skill in improving methods), Job Instruction (skill in instructing), and Job Relations (skill in leading) are three of the five needs of a good supervisor, and the three "J" programs of Training Within Industry.
What to notice: the three J's reinforce one another. Improve the method, teach the improved method well, and lead the people doing it — a supervisor meeting all three is meeting three of the five needs at once.
6A closing word
Job Methods is, in the end, a simple discipline: to look hard at a job you have done the same way for years, to ask whether each part of it is really necessary, and to make the necessary parts easier and safer rather than asking anyone to work harder or in a hurry.
The supervisors who use this method find that it reaches their most important goals at once — greater quantities of quality product in less time, by making better use of the manpower, machines, materials, and methods already on hand. And the best source of those improvements is not an outside expert; it is the supervisor and the operators, who know the jobs better than anyone.
So pick a short job, break it down, question every detail, develop the better way, and put it to work — and remember that there is always a better way still:
One improvement today is worth far more than the same improvement next year. This is the whole story — let's put it to work.
When you are ready to go further, the companion guides continue the work: Job Instruction for teaching a job well, Job Relations for leading people and handling problems, and the Training Within Industry umbrella guide for the history and context behind all three.
In closing
Job Methods is the disciplined way to improve a job: break it down, question every detail (Why · What · Where · When · Who · How), develop the new method (eliminate · combine · rearrange · simplify), and apply it (sell · approvals · use · credit) — without asking anyone to work harder.
Skill comes from doing, not from knowing the card. So pick a short job, work the four steps, and put one improvement a week to work. Then study the companion programs, Job Instruction and Job Relations, when you are ready to go further.