Jidoka: the quintessence of Lean
What can be seen, can be solved
Originating in Toyota Production System (TPS), Lean is an amalgamation of concepts, tools and philosophies which help reduce waste and improve flow. Lean is about continually improving processes and capability to build quality products and services that deliver customer value. A key underlying enabler for that is the principle of jidoka. Translated roughly as autonomation, jidoka is a fundamental practice to implement for any organization desiring truly lean operations that deliver customer value.
Jidoka
Jidoka is a foundational philosophy of the Toyota Production System (TPS). The TPS is popularly illustrated as a metaphorical house standing on the ‘pillars’ of jidoka and just-in-time.
The concept of jidoka traces to Japanese inventor and industrialist Sakichi Toyoda, who was associated with advances in textile weaving, particularly the handloom. After attaining a patent for the wooden handloom, Toyoda progressed to his ultimate aim of making a self-powered loom (Japan’s first) which he accomplished in 1897. Its standout feature was a warp halting device which automatically shut down the machine if the warp thread broke. This had far-reaching effects across man and machine. Prior to Toyoda’s invention, if the thread broke the machine would continue to produce defective fabric, unless detected manually. Stopping the power loom, automatically, at the point when the thread broke (or run out) prevented defects from cascading further down the process and damaging the output (fabric). Importantly, the device meant that the power loom did not have to be watched constantly. Assisted by this device, a single operator could now supervise several machines simultaneously, improving productivity manyfold.
Sakichi and his son Kiichiro would make further improvements to the loom, culminating in the establishment of Toyoda Automatic Loomworks Limited, whose automobile division, established by Kiichiro, later became Toyota Motor Corporation. The concept of jidoka, central to the handloom, remained just as central to TPS.
“Quality comes not from inspection, but from the improvement of the production process” — Deming
Quality
The core concept of jidoka is to stop a process immediately if there are problems or abnormalities and highlighting it via a signal (andon). At the equipment level, machines can detect abnormalities and stop automatically. The operator, now largely freed of the chore of manually monitoring equipment, can focus on the production line and can bring it to a stop, as required, to prevent problems being passed downstream, thereby, reducing defects, delays and rework. By stopping the equipment precisely when a problem occurs, jidoka helps illuminate the root cause of problems. By identifying problems at the source and creating a pause-point to address them, jidoka allows operators to understand and rectify the problem in time.
Through mechanical and human jidoka, waste that would have resulted from producing defective items is eliminated and process, product and production quality is maintained. Jidoka, therefore, bakes-in quality control into the production process.
“Quality can not be inspected into a product or service; it must be built into it” — Harold Dodge (a pioneer of statistical quality control)
Capability uplift
Jidoka is loosely translated as autonomation, a portmanteau of automation and autonomy. It’s also translated as automation with human intelligence. Despite originating in a control device, the impact of jidoka has been far-reaching enough for it to be considered as a multi-dimensional construct. The best definition I’ve found is one describing jidoka as a humanistic approach towards configuring the man-machine interface.
The essence of jidoka is making problems visible. When problems are visible, people have an opportunity to understand, analyze (root causes) and respond accordingly. When problems are surfaced at the right time, operators can make timely interventions to prevent defects from flowing down the production process. By intelligently man and machine, both are are “empowered” to address the problem, as it occurs, in a way that optimizes their capabilities. Autonomy. Automation. Autonomation. Machines are able to stop automatically in the event of a problem. This liberates the operators from the tyranny of constantly monitoring the machines as they can now respond on an exception basis. The freed time can be used to focus on value-adding tasks requiring higher skills and judgement. When frontline workers are empowered to make judgements like stopping the line etc. autonomously, a culture of problem-solving is fostered. Problem-solving fosters organizational learning and builds teams who understand their immediate work and take responsibility for it. The lessons learnt from problem-solving become part of standardized work, which in turn becomes the foundation for continuous improvement. Over time, this culture of collective problem-solving allows quality to be driven bottom-up rather than be pushed top-down.
Going back to the TPS House, we can see how the pillar of jidoka i.e. making problems visible and stopping to fix problems, supports:
- the “roof” of the TPS house which represents value — best quality, lowest cost, shortest lead time, best safety and high morale.
- and the “vertical core” of the house which represents operational capability — waste reduction, continuous improvement and teamwork.
“This cycle of improvement in both human skills and technologies is the essence of Toyota’s jidoka” — Toyota
Lean Operating Models
Lean has its origins in TPS. While other Lean terms have become relatively more popular, jidoka remains as much a foundational philosophy for Lean as it’s for TPS. In many ways, jidoka is like the autonomic nervous system that Taiichi Ohno (founder of TPS) aspired to, which provides the means and mindset to incorporate quality across processes and products, and uplift capability at people and organizational level.
Jidoka reveals the crucial role that monitoring and control systems play in ensuring quality. No matter how well designed a process is, there will always be scope for errors, problems or abnormalities. Instead of denying, ignoring or dumping problems downstream for someone else to handle, jidoka is a system for surfacing problems at the time of occurrence so that they can be understood and fixed before they cause any issues downstream. Importantly, it’s a humanistic system which assigns optimal roles to man and machine for ensuring quality. Since quality is value, jidoka is a core enabler for creating value.
Lean operating models require robust monitoring and control systems. In manufacturing settings, the need for such systems is obvious. Non-manufacturing settings, however, have an equal, if not greater, need for jidoka. There may not be a machine that stops automatically, but jidoka is not just about stopping machines. It’s about designing work to incorporate quality. In service settings, jidoka can be implemented via process design and governance structures. The essence of jidoka is the culture of making problems visible at the point of occurrence. This is the defining attribute of lean operating models. Lean/TPS are today being recognized for what they really are: Thinking Production Systems, propelled by problem-solving capabilities of empowered staff. The first step is to make problems visible — precisely what jidoka does.
The concept of jidoka was introduced via a handloom. Staying on the textile metaphor, I liken the ethos of jidoka to the idiom — “a stitch in time saves nine”. When operating models are based on concepts congruent with such timeless wisdom, they will naturally be lean and pragmatic, and catalyze the best people, process, product, and organizational outcomes.
