Job Instruction Breakdown

A Job Instruction Breakdown (JIB) was one of the three Js in the Training Within Industry (TWI)
program of the Department of Defense. A JIB is used to state what is required to do a job correctly and
safely. It has three major parts. First it has the Important Steps of the job, which describes what the
worker does using a few simple words and in the correct sequence. The second major part is the key
points listed for each of the Important Steps. The key points are descriptions of how the job is done and
represent the guidance of an expert as to what makes or breaks the job, what makes the job easier to
do, and what might injure the worker. The third major part of the JIB is the reasons why a step is done.
JIB fulfills the TWI principle that workers perform better when they know why they are doing something
a certain way. See the article by Hannon and Grossman (2011) that illustrates the use of JIB.
1. Select one of the tasks for the 4 positions in the Beer game as we did them in class. State which
position you selected. List the tasks you did as part of that position during the game.
2. Complete the JIB below for the position you selected in #1. Your name is entered as author.
The steps in this diagram are the steps to perform the tasks you listed in #1. Add or delete rows
as you necessary to ensure you have listed all the important steps.
Parts:
Tools and materials:
Reference materials:
#
0

Important Step
Estimate the
demand

Shipping beer cases

to retailer

Job Instruction Breakdown

Shipping the beer
Author:
cases to retailer
Transportation vehicles required to ship the beer cases
Communication with distributor and retailer
JIB
Key Points
1. Use forecasting techniques like point
forecast, time series data etc.
2. Consider the present trends to predict the
future demand.

1.
2.

3.

Check the inventory and number of cases

available on hand.
If no. of cases in inventory + on hand are
more than demand, then ship required cases
to retailer
If no. of cases in inventory + on hand are
less than demand, then ship whatever is
available to the retailer

Akshay Kumar Manda

Reasons
1. Past data gives
us a broad
view over the
number of
cases being
demanded.
2. Variations in
the real time
situation
change the
demand.
1. If the number
of items are
less on hand it
causes back
orders.
2. Shipping more
cases causes
loss to the
firm.
3. Shipping even
lesser than
what is on
hand causes

Order beer cases

from the distributor

Order optimum level of quantity of beer cases to

reduce the inventory, backorder and transportation
costs.

1.

2.

Time

Ship and order the quantities before dead line

1.

2.

Follow up

Cross check the decision before finalizing the

decision

1.

increasing
backorder
costs.
Ordering more
than optimum
level leads to
inventory
costs.
Ordering less
than optimum
and projected
demand
causes back
order costs.
Not preferable
to get the
work delayed
and cause
backorders for
running out of
stock which
effects the
supply chain.
It hurts the
brand value of
the
organization.
It is not
advisable to
make errors
while shipping
and ordering
which may
cause sudden
increase in
inventory or
excess
shipping.

ALTERNATIVE
1. If you were not in class for the Beer game or do not want to do this homework based on the class
exercise, select a job that you do where you are currently working (or where you formerly worked).
Preferably it should be a job you supervise. Briefly describe where you worked and the context of the
job and the job.

For example: I work at ABC accounting, where I supervise the preparation of

quarterly tax statements for our corporate clients to submit to the tax agencies. As part of
this job I supervise several bookkeepers who receive data from the corporations on a
monthly basis, enter the data into the appropriate forms, cross check the entries using the
column and row totals and then prepare statements for our corporate clients. The JIB
below is for the data entry job.
2.

Complete the JIB above for the job you selected above. Your name is entered as author.