Application of TWI in Supply Chain Management

Abstract

Supply Chain Integration is greatly considered by Organizations as it highly contributes towards the efficiency of their Supply Chains. Integration is both internal as well as external. Organizations by setting up performance standards are achieving the internal integration while external integration still seems to be a challenge. It requires building up of standards with different partners in the supply chain which calls up on organizational and cultural changes among firms. Researchers identify the requirement for a successful industrial initiative while many existing ones have no definite standards and are hard to implement.

For building such an initiative or framework this paper exhibits a possibility to extend the use of a program called Training within Industry (TWI) to the value chain which evolved in 1940’s during World War two to increase production output to support the Allied Forces war effort. Four program modules of TWI Job Methods (JM), Job Instruction (JI), Job Relations (JR) and Program Development and their relevance to achieve Supply Chain External Integration on sustainable basis is discussed in detail. A hypothesis is proposed on implementing TWI for supply chain external integration to achieve it on sustainable basis.