Doing a job safely is crucial for manufacturers doing business across Minnesota.
 
And now they have access to a new Job Safety service certified by the TWI Institute through Enterprise Minnesota. Job Safety provides access to key information and training that helps reduce accidents, promotes environmental health and safety awareness, and improves overall work quality.

The Job Safety program teaches supervisors in small to mid-sized manufacturing companies to engage their employees in identifying potential hazards and eliminating them, including a method to analyze the chain of events that lead to accidents and hazardous situations. It helps companies provide a safer workplace, while utilizing existing training and knowledge affirmed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations.
 
Enterprise Minnesota is offering the program to meet rising demand for safety training, a trend at the national level too.
 
"Across the country, everyone has been asking us for the past two years for a job safety program," said TWI Institute Master Trainer Patrick Graupp. "Safety has always been a big issue, but we've seen that companies are now more enthusiastic about the issue"
 
Enterprise Minnesota is the only organization in the state certified by the TWI Institute to offer this Job Safety program. Working through the TWI Institute, Enterprise Minnesota is able to offer Job Safety as part of a suite of TWI - Training Within Industry - programs that include:
 
Job Relations - Teaching to build positive employee relations, increase cooperation and motivation, and quickly resolve conflicts.
 
Job Methods - Teaching to produce a higher quantity of high quality products in less time by making the best use of people, machines, and materials available.
 
Job Instruction - Teaching to train employees quickly to do the job correctly, safely, and conscientiously.
 
TWI was developed during World War II to help sustain manufacturers that sent skilled workers to military service. These companies needed to train new workers to both make up for lost productivity, and then increase efforts to aid the military campaign.
 
After the war, US companies discarded TWI as skilled workers returned to their jobs. However, the United States military recognized that the potential of TWI to resurrect the war-torn production sector the Japanese economy. They introduced the abandoned philosophy to eager Japanese companies - one of those being Toyota.
 
"Everyone wants to be like Toyota now," says TWI Institute Master Trainer and Enterprise Minnesota consultant Mike Braml, reflecting on US companies' renewed interest in TWI. After having been folded into the well-known Toyota Production System, TWI is coming back home to the US.
 
With four TWI Institute Certified Trainers and one TWI Institute Master Trainer on staff, Enterprise Minnesota works directly with supervisors on the shop floor. A successful supervisor leads by utilizing and integrating all parts of TWI says Enterprise Minnesota consultant, and Job Safety certified trainer Samuel Gould.
 
"When doing other parts of TWI, you're always considering the safety component at the same time," Gould said. "If you draw a wagon wheel, and it represents the knowledge and skills that a supervisor needs to be successful, job safety would be the hub of that wheel."
 
"This does not replace the OSHA training, but rather complements it," Graupp said. "It gives supervisors a methodology for actually implementing what OSHA wants done - which is to find cause and take action."
 
Taking action is a primary component of job safety. Trainers stress developing the knowledge to identify situations that could create an incident. They teach supervisors and employees a four-step process that makes them aware of danger, teaches them to restrict exposure to danger, identify danger, and find a resolution.
 
"The key point of job safety is to find abnormalities in the workplace that look normal at first glance and to stay a step ahead in thinking and acting," said Gould.
 
Enterprise Minnesota plans to deliver the first TWI Certified Job Safety program in the state in January 2009. For more information on Job Safety and the entire TWI program, visit www.enterpriseminnesota.org.

Contact Enterprise Minnesota for a consultation today: