Lowell O. Mellen (1897-1993) was born in Streetsboro, Ohio, to Otis and Gertrude (Cannon) Mellon. After attending Ravenna High School for two years, Mellon's family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he graduated from West Technical High School in 1912. He specialized in shop classes at West Tech, and began working as an industrial trainer and instructor at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron. From 1921-1924, Mellon returned to Cleveland where he taught drawing and math at area industrial plants and opened his own automobile sales agency. He then moved to Buffalo, New York, where he served as the direct sales director for B. F. Goodrich until 1941.
When the United States entered World War II, Mellen was recruited by the War Manpower Commission to become the Northern Ohio District representative for the Training Within Industry (TWI) program. This new industrial training program had been developed by the United States government to improve efficiency and production at industrial plants critical to the war effort. Mellen recruited local industries to use the Training Within Industry program which included courses in job instruction, work methods, and worker-supervision relations, and then implemented TWI programs at those plants. Mellen served in this capacity from 1941-1945.
At the end of the war, Mellen founded Training Within Industry, Inc., in Cleveland to continue his career in job training and instruction methodology as the defense industry converted back to peacetime production. TWI taught techniques of worker participation in management decisions, improved methods of supervisor training, the concept of continuous improvement, and enlightened employee relations.
TWI consists of four basic training programs. Job Instruction courses taught trainers to train inexperienced workers faster by breaking down the jobs into closely defined steps and placing responsibility for worker learning on the instructor. Job Methods courses taught workers to evaluate the efficiency of their jobs, analyze each step of their duties, and suggest improvements. Job Relations courses taught supervisors to have effective and fair relationships with their workers, emphasizing the lesson that "People Must Be Treated As Individuals." Program Development courses helped supervisors solve problems through training.
These four TWI courses evolved and expanded to include courses in Job Safety, Problem Solving, and Discussion Leading.
His company attracted the attention of General Douglas McArthur who, fearful of mass starvation and unrest in occupied Japan, was anxious to revive industry there. In 1951 Mellen took the TWI program to Japan where his efforts transformed the postwar Japanese management style from an inefficient paternalistic tradition. Although other Americans introduced TWI in other countries, Mellen's efforts in Japan had the most lasting effect. Within two years of his arrival in Japan, Mellen's company had trained over a million plant supervisors and foremen. Back in the United States, he continued to teach TWI techniques until he retired in 1985.
In 1929, Lowell Mellen married Mildred Manthey (d. 1965); they had no children. A resident of Bay Village, he was buried at Lakewood Park Cemetery.
Mellen's industrial training legacy in Japan is illustrated by the fact that Japanese companies now offer TWI training to American companies and bring TWI methods to the United States when Japanese businesses and industry open plants in America. TWI pioneered the concepts of continuous improvement and the employee suggestion box. Mellen's TWI training program is largely credited for contemporary Japanese management style known as Kaizen and to the ascent of Japan into world markets. Mellen's TWI techniques were successfully adapted by the Toyota Motor Corporation in conjunction with the Lean or Just In Time principles of Taiichi Ohno.
The Lowell O. Mellen Photographs, ca. 1941-1959 and undated, consist of 121 black and white photographs and one 16mm black and white motion picture film.
This collection will be useful to researchers seeking images that depict the activities of the War Manpower Commission and Training Within Industry, Inc. job training programs in northeast Ohio during World War II, and in Japan and Indonesia in the 1950s. Those seeking images of Lowell Mellen and other executives at Training Within Industry, Inc. will also find this collection useful.
The collection is arranged in two series.
The researcher should also consult MS 5204 Lowell O. Mellen Papers.
Processed by Margaret Burzynski-Bays in 2014.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] PG 596 Lowell O. Mellen Photographs, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
These photographs and audio-visual material were removed from MS 5204 Lowell O. Mellen Papers. Gift of Lowell and Mildred Mellen in 1991.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.