Article taken from nTask Blog — What Is Poka Yoke | How to Use It & Why Is It Important?
Mistakes are an inevitable part of production and management. Companies, all over the world, at one time or another, face issues that need immediate attention and resolution. To make sure that the results are perfect, these businesses go over the whole process with a fine-tooth comb to ensure the impeccability of their products and services.
Proofing and error analysis are important parts of end-stage management. No matter the industry or business, companies invest their capital to review and evaluate their deliverables, to avoid the risk of an error. This allows them to make sure that their delivery is flawless.
But what if there were no mistakes in the first place? What if you could identify and resolve errors before they even happen? Wouldn’t it lessen the burden and relieve your stress? You definitely can!
This is where the Poka-yoke technique enters the picture. What is poka yoke?
Poka-yoke is a technique, the use of which, eliminates the occurrence of errors. The use of this technique helps improve efficiency and increase productivity.
What Does Poka-Yoke Mean And What Is Its History?
Poka-yoke is a Japanese term that formerly began as ‘Baka-yoke’. Baka-yoke means foolproofing but owing to the offensive implication of the term, it was replaced with Poka-yoke.
What is Poka yoke’s meaning? Poka-Yoke means mistake-proofing or avoiding (Yokeru) mistakes (poka). This technique is a part of Lean management and ensures that there are no errors, to begin with.
What is Poka yoke’s history? The term Poka-yoke was coined by a Japanese industrial engineer named, Shigeo Shingo. He applied the term to industrial processes in 1960 to prevent human errors.
Shingo identified that factory workers often forgot to install a spring while assembling a switch. To overcome this error, he redesigned the process into a two-step process. As such, workers placed the springs in a placeholder and then, inserted the spring from the placeholder into the switch. If the spring holders remained in the placeholder then, it indicated that the workers had a mistake. They could, then, easily rectify the mistake before the switch was delivered to the clients.
This also helped distinguish mistakes and defects. Defects are errors that reach the customer while mistakes are apprehended and amended beforehand. Poka-yoke allows the detection and elimination of mistakes before they reach the source.
What Is Poka-Yoke In Lean Management?
Perfection is an illusion. Human errors are an unavoidable part of business processes. That being said, fixing these issues is a demanding yet crucial part of management.
What is poka yoke’s role in management? Poka-yoke accepts the fallibility of perfection and gives people the space to identify and amend their mistakes. This aspect of Poka-yoke analogous with lean management where PMs strive for continuous improvement.
Poka-yoke is a mechanism in Lean management, the use of which helps get rid of mistakes. With the use of Poka-yoke, PMs can identify and rectify mistakes before they even arise. This technique can detect mistakes and correct them before you move on to the next stage.
Examples of Poka-yoke
What is Poka yoke example? The use of Poka-Yoke is not limited to management processes but is used in various other day-to-day processes as well.
Courtesy lights, installed in cars, are automatically switched on when a door is opened. The light stays on until or unless all the doors are firmly closed.
Auto transmission cars have a switch that prevents ignition until or unless the car is in ‘neutral’ or ‘parking’. This switch plays a crucial role in alerting the drivers so that an unforeseen incident can be avoided.
Grammar and spell checks help us steer clear of any defects by highlighting errors. We wouldn’t want to embarrass ourselves, would we?
What is poka yoke example? These are certainly not the only ones, there are tons of others too.
What is the Significance of Poka-yoke?
Poka-yoke, as part of lean management, helps minimize the risk of errors by helping people identify the mistakes before they occur. This allows them to remove those mistakes and improve the efficiency of their project.
With the use of this technique, you can:
- Prevent and avoid errors
- Minimize the occurrence of errors in the future
- Spend fewer resources on quality checks
- Improve employees’ efficiency by inculcating the culture of constant improvement
- Reduce waste
- Improve the quality
- Enhance efficiency and productivity
- Maximize customer satisfaction
This method of constant improvement enhances the quality of products and makes it easy to improve producibility without investing further efforts and time.
When should Poka-yoke be used?
The poka yoke concept can be applied anywhere and everywhere. It is not industry or business-specific; it can be used in diverse settings such as the manufacturing industry, services industry, etc.
There are three Poka-yoke methodologies: contact, constant number, and sequence.
1. Contact:
In this method, errors are visually identified. It includes physical attributes such as shape, size, etc. to identify errors. this method involves the use of sensing devices to detect errors in physical attributes.
2. Constant number:
This methodology is used in processes where the actions are repeated over and over again. Errors are detected whenever the specified number of actions are not completed. The person in charge is alerted in case of an incomplete number of actions.
3. Sequence:
The use of this methodology ensures that the set sequence is followed during the production or manufacturing process. In this way, errors on the improper sequence are detected and resolved.
Conclusion
Poka-yoke is a lifesaver in Lean management. You no longer have to make any comprises on the quality of your product and services or make a fool of yourself by delivering defecting goods.
If you want to implement this strategy in your office and want to improve the quality of your work, then you can employ the use of project management software such as nTask.
nTask’s issue tracking and risk management modules are specifically designed to help eliminate errors. with the help of these features, you can:
- Identify risks and prepare you for unforeseen circumstances
- Mitigate risks using mitigation plan and assigning resources
- Risk matrix to identify the impact and likelihood of the risk
- Track bugs and issues
- Organize and prioritize issues
- Collaborate with team members to resolve the issues
With the use of these features, you can implement poka-yoke in your office and enjoy its insurmountable benefits. This simple but effective tool can save your time and resources, improve the quality of your products, and increase customers’ satisfaction.
Try it out today and enjoy the results.
Originally published at https://www.ntaskmanager.com on March 31, 2021.
