TWI Case Studies

Donald A. Dinero, PE, CPIM, has more than forty years of experience designing and implementing manufacturing methods and processes, and is the principal of The TWI Learning Partnership. He has addressed problems in all aspects of operations including, but not limited to, change management, personnel, labor unions, production systems, and production control.

His BS in mechanical engineering is from the University of Rochester and his MBA and MS (Career and Human Resource Development) are from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Don deliberately sought degrees in these areas so that he would have a balanced academic background in technology, business, and organization development. He received his Professional Engineering license (NYS) in 1983 and his Certification in Production and Inventory Control from APICS in 1986.

After over thirty years in positions of manufacturing and engineering management and as a direct contributor, Don entered the Lean consulting field by joining existing consulting firms. In 2002, he learned about TWI (Training Within Industry) and its reemergence in the U.S. After becoming developed as a TWI trainer in the three "J" courses, he began to study all the materials he could find on the subject. His studies and talks on TWI led to his writing the book Training Within Industry: The Foundation of Lean, published by Productivity Press, 2005. This book won a Shingo Prize for Research in 2006.

As he continued implementing Lean concepts, he began to realize that the Lean movement was hindered by its omission of TWI training. TWI offers fundamental skills training that helps to stabilize an organization, preparing it to seriously begin its Lean journey. In addition, it provides a foundation so that Lean principles are sustained. In order to assist in stabilizing an organization and, thus, assist in the acceptance of Lean, Don is concentrating his efforts on spreading t