Mistake Proofing - Poka Yoke
Is it always an expensive system?
Fabio Camplone is EMEA LEAN Product Supply Leader in Kimberly Clark.
He is leading the LEAN deployment in 18 Mills in 12 different Countries.
Eight years ago, he got in touch with LEAN Philosophy.
Since that, he discovered a real passion for Continuous Improvement.
He is eager to apply LEAN concept both at work and in everyday life.
Following an example of personal Poka Yoke (Mistake Proofing) to fix a personal issue he had few weeks ago
I am always interested in Problem Solving
and
everything I can do to put in place effective countermeasures
to stop the root causes.
Lean Thinking, is really a Philosophy,
so
I try to apply it every moment there’s a need, also with my family.
A Lean Family Story
Some weeks ago,
I was working from home
and
I agreed with my wife to take my son at school
and
then to bring him at basketball training;
I prepared the basketball backpack in the morning
and
set at an alarm clock at the time to leave home.
It was a very busy working day
with several teleconferences one after the other,
so
when the alarm clock was turned on,
I rushed away without taking the backpack.
I discovered it after I did few kilometers by car,
so
I was able to go back and pick it up.
I cannot deny it was very stressing and frustrating:
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How was possible I teach colleagues how to avoid limit/eliminate the 8 types of Waste and I generated in few minutes Motion and Waiting Waste in my personal life about the person I care more in the world?
Fabio
Bonus here! - The video on 8 wastes.
A tip to remember them forever
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Thinking About Countermeasures
The day after,
I started to think about this forgetfulness:
I certainly did not on purpose,
so
I arrived quite quickly to the root cause of not adequate standard
of the preparation of the materials needed for the basketball training.
Made clear the root cause,
it was important to think about a simple system to block the cause:
Poka Yoke (ポカヨケ) - Mistake Proofing
came to my mind.
Definition of it from Wikipedia
a Japanese term invented by Industrial Engineer in Toyota, Shigeo Shingo, to indicate a mistake-proof tool in the automotive area.
Every time we talk in our Company about Poka Yoke - Mistake Proofing,
we instinctively think about something very expensive,
probably because its origin comes from automotive industry.
In my case,
I started to put in place something as simple as possible at zero cost.

Sharing this simple example,
with some colleagues.
I quickly received very good feedbacks to improve it more.

The last countermeasure
(not a solution as Sensei Pascal Dennis taught me)
is still zero cost and is now allowing me to not forget any more backpack
for basketball, key car, etc…
in summary
all the important pieces I need
to take with me avoiding to create Waste
also in very busy days.
Conclusions
In summary,
is Poka Yoke-Mistake Proofing always expensive system?
Not at all!
Fabio Camplone
Read our review on 5S Methodology