PokaYoke

I forgot what site I got this from, but it’s a term I heard from a friend who took up Industrial Engineering (IE).

The term “PokaYoke” was popularised by Shigeo Shingo through his book “Zero Quality Control: Source Inspection and the PokaYoke System”. Shingo points out that mistakes will always be made (we’re only human after all!), but if PokaYoke’s are implemented then mistakes can be prevented from becoming defects (mistakes that reach the customer).

Most often these Pokayoke’s or fail-safe devises are very simple and often inexpensive visual prompts that prevents the defect in the product occurring. Either the operator is alerted that a mistake is about to be made, or the device actually prevents the mistake from being made. The important point of these types of mechanisms is that 100% of the parts are checked without the need for concentration from the operator.