The "Poka Yoke" method

From the Japanese term "poka" that means unintentional mistake or just mistake, and "yoke" which means avoiding mistakes, the "Poka Yoke" method is the way to name preventive actions arising from the activity of company´s quality control.

It´s based on anticipating problems before products are finished, and extends to workers safety mechanism, preventing possible errors when costumers use them.

Every product has its own process, but the applied system must guarantee that there´s no way the worker can make a mistake, but in case that a problem occurs, he can count on having a margin reaction that allows to fix it, avoiding wait for production to conclude.

There are two ways to apply Poka Yoke. The first through control function, which will prevent error occurrence and allow immediately intervention by pausing machine process. The second is a function alarm to activate an acoustic notification as a measure of warning.

Shigeo Shingo was the pioneer in his native Japan on using the method, applying it in Toyota´s production line. Although there was precedents, it was not until he implemented in this automotive company as a quality control technique.

And his idea arose from not to reach zero defects numbers at the end of production, making room for his method “error proof”, but most of all because the consequences of chain errors brought about by workers in the company and not due to what would the final product be, but the process that it followed.

Thus, production costs, in case is necessary make the production process again, will reduce if problems appears. Effective strategies are what MVP Business Strategy can provide for your company.

Source: http://blogthinkbig.com/el-metodo-poka-yoke/