✓ Free · MIT License Manufacturing Healthcare

TWI Job Breakdown Sheet

Build a complete TWI Job Instruction Job Breakdown Sheet with Important Steps, Key Points, and Reasons, plus the JI 4-step training plan and timetable. Draft-first: produces the deliverable immediately with [NEEDS GEMBA] for anything unconfirmed.

⬇ Download Skill The three columns ↓

What a JBS Is (and Isn't)

The trainer prepares from it. The learner never sees it.

A Job Breakdown Sheet is how a trainer prepares to teach one specific job well. It is not a checklist for the learner to follow at the workstation. That's a Standard Work sheet or SOP. The JBS helps the trainer think through the knacks, the safety points, the why behind every key point, before they stand in front of a new operator.

The most common misuse

Handing the JBS to the trainee as a reference document. The JBS is a trainer's preparation aid. Once the trainer has studied it, training follows the JI 4-step method, not a reading exercise.

The Three Columns

WHAT → HOW → WHY

The three columns have specific, non-negotiable meanings. Mixing them up is the most common quality failure in a JBS.

Important Steps, Column 1

WHAT

A logical segment where something happens to advance the work. A physical or informational change of state. Not a motion-by-motion breakdown. Most jobs break into roughly five to nine Important Steps (a working rule of this toolkit, not a TWI requirement). Fewer can hide key points, and a longer job is easier to teach as two JBSs.

Key Points, Column 2

HOW

Anything within a step that might make or break the job, injure the worker, or make the work easier. Safety, quality, or technique/knack. Key points are few and specific: most steps have zero, one, or two. Never put method detail in the Important Step column.

Reasons, Column 3

WHY

Concrete enough to act on. "Prevents the connector from cross-threading on reinsertion" is a reason. "For quality" or "for safety" is not. Push until it names the actual consequence.

Sample JBS

Torque wrench assembly: first three steps

Important Steps (WHAT) Key Points (HOW) Reasons (WHY)

1. Seat the socket

Full click audible and tactile before applying torque

Partial engagement causes socket slip under torque load: fastener stripped, re-work on every assembly behind it

2. Position the wrench

90° to the fastener axis; body weight over the handle

Off-axis force can mis-read torque and round the fastener hex, a field callback risk

3. Apply torque to spec

[NEEDS GEMBA: confirm spec value with engineering]

[NEEDS GEMBA: observe trainer for knack detail]

[NEEDS GEMBA] is a to-do, not a failure

A JBS with placeholder rows after a first draft is telling you exactly where to spend your next gemba time: which steps to watch performed, which specs to confirm with engineering, which knacks to ask the best operator about.

Training Plan Included

JI 4-Step Method: always in the deliverable

The training plan and timetable are required components of every JBS this skill produces, not optional. They are what make this a training tool and not just a documentation table.

Prepare the Worker

Put the trainee at ease. Find out what they already know. Get them interested. Place them correctly.

Present the Operation

Tell, show, and illustrate one Important Step at a time. Stress Key Points. Instruct clearly, completely, patiently.

Try Out Performance

Have them do the job. Correct errors. Have them explain each Key Point as they work. Continue until you know they know.

Follow Up

Put them on their own. Designate who they go to for help. Check frequently. Encourage questions. Taper off extra coaching.

Quality Bar

What separates a good JBS from a bad one

Important Steps written as paragraphs

If a step describes how something is done, the method detail belongs in Key Points. The step itself should say only what happens: the change of state.

A Reason that just repeats the Key Point

"Finger-tighten first: for quality" is not a reason. "Finger-tighten first: prevents cross-threading that ruins the housing" is.

Invented steps or key points

Every step must come from what the user described, a document they pasted, or an observation they reported. The skill's general idea of how a job like this usually goes is not a source.

More than 9 Important Steps

A JBS with 15 steps is probably two jobs. Consider splitting it. The five-to-nine range is a working rule of this toolkit, not TWI doctrine, and a longer job is easier to teach in two sessions.

Examples

Manufacturing and clinical jobs both supported

🏭 Torque Wrench Assembly

🏥 Specimen Labeling

Training a new operator to torque a fastener assembly correctly, built from a trainer's verbal walkthrough plus one gemba observation. Includes the full 4-step training plan and a timetable for 4 new hires starting the following month.

Input given

"Walk me through how you teach this. Where does the job start? What do new people always get wrong?"
Trainer described 6 steps verbally. Torque spec was not confirmed, so it was marked [NEEDS GEMBA].

Training a new medical assistant on specimen labeling at the point of collection. The skill uses the user's vocabulary: "patient," "collection," "label," instead of manufacturing terms. It also includes the two-identifier verification as a critical Key Point.

Healthcare note

The two-patient-identifier check is a Joint Commission requirement and a patient-safety Key Point. The skill flags any JBS for a clinical procedure that's missing safety-critical Key Points.

What you get

A real run on the sample data

Unedited output. The sample message at the top went to Claude Sonnet 4.6 (an earlier-generation model, so a newer one may word things differently) with this skill pasted in, the same way the steps below show, on September 29, 2026. Scroll inside the frame to read the whole reply.

Open the full image

Installation

Describe the job. Get the JBS.

Copy the skill. Open twi-jbs.md, select all the text and copy it.

Paste it into Claude. In claude.ai, start a new chat and paste it as your first message, or paste it into a Project's instructions so it's there every time. The free plan works, and free accounts can keep up to five Projects.

Say what's in front of you, in your own words, with any data you have (leave out names). Add "just draft it" to skip the questions and get the whole deliverable now. For example, say "build a job breakdown sheet for [job name]" and walk through the steps verbally, or paste existing notes or a procedure.

See a finished example first (optional): the worked examples are in the download, in the resources/examples folder.

Export to Word (optional): in Claude Code, the skill can also run scripts/export_docx.py for a printable trainer's sheet. In a plain claude.ai chat, just copy the answer instead.

Related Skills

TWI Job Breakdown Sheet

The trainer prepares from it. The learner never sees it.

WHAT → HOW → WHY

Torque wrench assembly: first three steps

JI 4-Step Method: always in the deliverable

What separates a good JBS from a bad one

Manufacturing and clinical jobs both supported

A real run on the sample data

Describe the job. Get the JBS.

JBS fits with standard work and kaizen follow-up