Descriptions

• • This course teaches the fundamental principles and concepts of the Poka-Yoke System.
  • It is System of procedures, devices, and other interventions that make doing the right things easy and the wrong things difficult, or at least alert the human operator that a mistake has been committed or is about to be committed.

Introduction

All work in an organization is performed through processes. Human resources are an indispensable element is every process. But human beings are imperfect and prone to committing mistakes. A high-quality process needs to operate at a very high level of reliability and predictability. How can such a process be possible given human fallibility?

The answer lies in a system of procedures, devices, and other interventions that make doing the right things easy and the wrong things difficult, or at least alert the human operator that a mistake has been committed or is about to be committed. This system is called Poka-Yoke, a Japanese term that means “mistake-proofing.” It was first developed in Toyota Motors of Japan by Shigeo Shingo, who assisted Taiichi Ohno in creating the Toyota Production System, also known as the Just-in-Time Production or Lean Manufacturing. The TPS is recognized as the world’s most efficient manufacturing system. JIT cannot allow mistakes because they would derail the finely-balanced operations. If mistakes can be prevented, then the operations will flow smoothly and productively, producing outputs of high quality at the shortest cycle time and at the least cost.

This course teaches the fundamental principles and concepts of the Poka-Yoke System.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the participants will be able to:

1. Understand and explain the basic principles and concepts behind poka-yoke
2. Apply these principles and concepts to the development of a poka-yoke solution to an actual operating problem in their respective organizations.