What is a TWI job breakdown sheet?

The instructor's notes for teaching one job with TWI Job Instruction: the important steps of the job, the key points in each step and the reason for each key point. It is short on purpose, so it can be read at a glance while teaching.

What is a key point in TWI?

Anything in a step that could make or break the job, injure the worker, or make the work easier to do, such as a knack, a feel, a timing or a special fact. Most steps have one or two; some have none.

What is the difference between a job breakdown and a work instruction?

A work instruction is the document the operator follows or refers to. A job breakdown is the trainer's teaching aid: only the important steps, key points and reasons, in a few words each, used while presenting the job.

What are the four steps of TWI Job Instruction?

Prepare the worker, present the operation, try-out performance and follow up. The operation is presented one important step at a time, three times: the steps, then with the key points, then with the reasons.

What is a TWI training timetable?

A grid of people against jobs showing who can do each job and when training is planned, so the trainer can see where cover is short. The Excel version counts who can do each job against how many you need.

Free template

Updated October 1, 2026

TWI job breakdown sheet

A job breakdown sheet is the instructor's notes for teaching one job with TWI Job Instruction. It splits the job into its important steps, the logical parts of the job where something happens to move the work forward, and for each step lists the key points, anything that could make or break the job, injure the worker or make the work easier, with the reason for each key point. It is written by doing the job slowly and noting each step, and it stays short, because the instructor reads it at a glance while teaching; it is not the work instruction the operator follows. Page 1 of the PDF is the blank breakdown with the header fields, what a step, a key point and a reason are, and twelve rows. Page 2 is a worked example for fitting and torquing a pump cover, the four get-ready points and the four steps of Job Instruction. The Excel version has the breakdown to type, with each key point marked safety, quality or knack, and a TWI training timetable: people by jobs, with a tick for who can do each job or the date their training is planned, and for each job how many can do it against how many you need, the gap after the planned training and plans whose date has passed.

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Page 1 of the TWI job breakdown sheet: fields for operation, parts, tools and materials, safety equipment, prepared by, date and revision, a short table defining important step, key point and reason, and twelve numbered rows with columns for important steps, key points and reasons. — Important stepsKey pointsReasonsWorked exampleGet ready to instructFour steps of Job InstructionTraining timetable in Excel

When to use it

When to use a job breakdown sheet

Before teaching a job with TWI Job Instruction, to a new operator or someone cross-training.
When a job is done several ways across shifts and you need one agreed way to teach.
After an audit finds operators skipping a key point, to check the breakdown and the way it is taught.
When writing or updating standard work, to capture the key points and reasons from the best operator.

How to fill it in

1
Do the job yourself, slowly
With the real tools and parts. Each time you stop to move on to something new, write it down as an important step, in a few words: what is done, not how.
2
Go through it again for key points
In each step, ask what could make or break the job, what could injure the worker, and what knack, feel or timing makes it easier. Write only those.
3
Write the reason for each key point
Why it matters, in a few words. People remember and follow a key point when they know the reason.
4
Leave out the obvious
Steps anyone would do without being told stay off the sheet. A breakdown longer than the job needs is hard to teach from.
5
Check it with someone who does the job
Watch an experienced operator against your breakdown and add anything you missed, especially the knacks that are never written down.
6
Teach with the four steps and update the sheet
Prepare the worker, present the operation, try out performance, follow up. Note what went wrong in the try-out and change the breakdown.

Job Instruction

The four steps of Job Instruction

The breakdown is what you teach; these steps are how. The instructor presents the job three times, one important step at a time: steps only, then with the key points, then with the reasons.

Step	What the instructor does	What it gets you
1. Prepare the worker	Puts the learner at ease, names the job, finds out what they already know and places them where they can see the work.	A learner who is ready to learn and can see what matters.
2. Present the operation	Tells, shows and illustrates one important step at a time, then again stressing each key point, then again giving the reasons.	The job taught in pieces the learner can take in.
3. Try-out performance	Has the learner do the job while correcting errors, then do it again explaining each step, key point and reason.	Proof the learner knows the job, not a hope.
4. Follow up	Puts the learner on their own, names who to go to for help, checks often and tapers off the coaching.	The job holds after the trainer steps back.

1. Prepare the worker
What the instructor does
Puts the learner at ease, names the job, finds out what they already know and places them where they can see the work.
What it gets you
A learner who is ready to learn and can see what matters.
2. Present the operation
What the instructor does
Tells, shows and illustrates one important step at a time, then again stressing each key point, then again giving the reasons.
What it gets you
The job taught in pieces the learner can take in.
3. Try-out performance
What the instructor does
Has the learner do the job while correcting errors, then do it again explaining each step, key point and reason.
What it gets you
Proof the learner knows the job, not a hope.
4. Follow up
What the instructor does
Puts the learner on their own, names who to go to for help, checks often and tapers off the coaching.
What it gets you
The job holds after the trainer steps back.

A filled-in example

Illustrative, not a benchmark

A breakdown for fitting and torquing a pump cover with four bolts (illustrative), as on page 2 of the PDF and in the Excel worked example.

Six important steps: fit gasket, place cover, start bolts, run down bolts, torque bolts, mark bolts.
Key points only where they matter: gasket flat side down and pressed into the groove all the way round, all four bolts started by hand, cross pattern 1, 3, 2, 4 until the click.
A reason for each key point, for example starting by hand stops cross-threading, which the driver would strip.
In the Excel training timetable, the press 4 changeover needs two people who can do it: one can, one is in training, so it is covered once that training is done.

The breakdown fits on half a sheet and the instructor can read it at a glance while teaching. The learner gets six steps instead of a twenty-line procedure, and hears why each key point matters.

Common mistakes

Writing a work instruction instead
Full sentences and every small motion make a sheet nobody can teach from. Keep steps and key points to a few words each.
Key points with no reason
A rule without a reason gets dropped as soon as it slows someone down. Give every key point its reason.
Breaking down the job from memory
Do the job while you write. The knacks experienced operators use are exactly what memory leaves out.
Too much in one go
Teach no more than the learner can master at once. A long job can be taught in parts, with a try-out after each part.

Download the template

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Run this template in LeanSuite

In LeanSuite a designated trainer, coordinator or supervisor checks the new hire against a standard OJT checklist on a tablet at the machine, with the SOPs and OPLs for the job attached, and the sign-off updates the person's level on the Skill Matrix.

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