Shigeo Shingo of the Toyota Motor Works had a revelation: Mistakes are a part of human nature and are unavoidable, but defects arising from mistakes are 100% avoidable. Thus began the technique of mistake-proofing, or Poka-Yoke, as a countermeasure to defects in any process. Borrowing from the military practice of fail-safing, Shingo developed this Lean best practice to "respect human nature" rather than punish it. Yet most legacy quality systems discourage reporting of defects because employees fear reprisal and corrective action (like additional training) by supervisors. This misses the point completely. As a result, Poka-Yoke is the least employed best practice of Lean - though it can be the most effective in eliminating one of the 7 Wastes (muda) in business processes: defects. |
