In general, organizations practice this principle to improve productivity. To overstate the effect of poka yoke on modern manufacturing and modern society would be hard to do. If you’re interested, we also have a list of other important Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques. In addition to being one of the pillars of the TPS, the concept of poka yoke proved so valuable that it also became one of the pillars of lean manufacturing. That work would continue for the rest of his life, including the publication of eight books in his lifetime and credit in several posthumous works. If a spring was in the dish after the device was assembled, then the worker was warned that the device was incomplete, and the defect could be fixed before the device went to the customer.Īt the time of his engagement with the electronics plant in 1961, Shingo had been working on process improvements for over a decade. This early example of mistake proofing is an example of the warning approach to poka yoke. Then, if a spring was still in the dish after the switches were in place, the worker would know that a spring had been left out of the device. Shingo and the employees at the plant devised a process by which two springs would be placed on a dish before assembly began. Once the buttons were in place, a simple visual inspection of the device would not reveal whether the springs were present or not. When assembled properly, each button covered a spring, but the plant manager explained that leaving out a spring was a common defect in the finished devices. In 1961, Shingo was visiting an electronics plant where a device was assembled with two buttons. In his book Zero Quality Control: Source Inspection and the Poka Yoke System, Shingeo Shingo relates a story from the early days of practicing poka yoke that has come to be told as the earliest formal example of the tool. These two minds are credited with the implementation of strategies like poka yoke that would come to be widely known as the Toyota Production System (TPS). The Toyota Motor Company was relatively new at the time, an offshoot of Toyoda Spinning and Weaving.Īs he rose through the ranks at Toyota, Ohno would partner frequently with Shingeo Shingo. In 1943, Taiichi Ohno joined the Toyota Motor Company. Poh-kah (rhymes with “mocha”) YOH-kay (rhymes with “okay”). As it would be spoken in Japanese, the pronunciation for poka yoke sounds like: The Japanese term for prevent or proof is two syllables. Most native speakers of English will see the word “yoke” and assume that the “e” is silent so that the word rhymes with familiar constructions like “poke” and “joke.” These noises will not stop until you have taken corrective action. For example, many cars will emit beeping noises if you have not fastened your seatbelt or shut your door properly. The warning approach: where you are given a warning that a defect has occurred, so you can fix it. The elevator doors can not close until the obstruction is removed, and the elevator remains stationary. For example, elevator doors use sensors to prevent the door from closing if there is something in the way. The control approach: where a process stops when a defect occurs and doesn’t resume until there is a corrective action. Poka yoke is often divided into two approaches to prevent or detect defects: If you’re in a position where you want to use Lean methods, then poka yoke is one of the tools that you’re going to want in your belt. Poka yoke strategies eliminate human error from your processes so that defects never get to customers, meaning that your processes are more productive and profitable. Poka yoke is a fundamental tool of Lean Six Sigma that refers to strategies that prevent mistakes from occurring in a process.
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