Mistake Proofing - Poka Yoke

Is it always an expensive system?

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:

Bonus here! - The video on 8 wastes.

A tip to remember them forever

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