OM SBR1

GROUP 03 MEMBERS

Pranita Bolisetty – GM21CMM018

Lakshya Mathur – GM21CM002

Prem Bhatia – GM21CMM023

Jayesh Bhatt – GM21GL028

 SBR – 1 – POKA YOKE

Meaning and Origin of Poka-Yoke

In the 1960s, Shigeo Shingo, an industrial engineer at Toyota coined the term Poka-
Yoke (poh-kah yoh-keh). Poka-Yoke essentially means ‘fool-proofing’ or ‘mistake-
proofing’, which means avoiding inadvertent errors in a process more specifically in the
manufacturing and service industries. Poka-Yoke is valuable, powerful and one of the
most important work standardization techniques that prevents any errors or defects from
appearing and thus resulting in better efficiency of work processes.

The main purpose of the Poka-Yoke is to ensure that right conditions exist before any
stage of the work process and to eliminate product/service defects by averting,
correcting, or highlighting human errors as and when they occur.

In other words, Poka-Yoke is also a behavior-conditioning constraint as a process

mechanism to prevent incorrect operation.

How and When to use Poka-Yoke?

Applying Poka-Yoke in the manufacturing or services industry to prevent all kinds of

errors:

1. Processing error: As per the standard operating procedure if a process is not

performed or missed
2. Set-up error: Using incorrect tooling or setting/adjusting machine operation
3. Missing part: Non-inclusion of certain parts in the process
4. Improper part/item: Incorrect part used in the process
5. Operations error: Incorrect carrying out the operation with incorrect
specifications
6. Measurement error: Errors in machine calibration or measurement of
dimensions of apart from a vendor

Poka-Yoke is easy to implement because of its all-round and reasonable nature. The
stepwise process to implement Poka-Yoke is as follows.

1. Identify the operation or process

2. Identify the variabilities in the operations that cause deviations in the planned
output
3. Identify the sources of the variabilities
4. Apply the 5-whys to analyze the ways in which a process can fail and to solve
any problem / deviation
5. Select the appropriate Poka-Yoke approach, like using a shutout type
(preventing errors) or an attention type (highlighting errors)
 6. Have a comprehensive approach to Poka-Yoke instead of thinking of it as
simple mechanism
7. Identify the appropriate implementation method - contact detection (using
shape, size, or other physical attributes for detection), constant number (error
triggered if a specific number of actions have not been completed), or
sequencing method (using checklists to ensure completion of steps in the
process)
8. Test the mechanism to see if it works
9. Train the operators, review their performance, and measure success/results

Examples of Poka-Yoke in the Manufacturing Industry

Missile Manufacturing

In the missile manufacturing industry, for single shot missiles, before transporting the
missile to a remote location for the launch of the missile, it is subjected to various tests
so that the missile is not fired due to any external factors. After the assembly of the
missile, it is placed on a vibrator and subjected to tests to check whether the missile will
be able to withstand all the bumps on road or any natural mishaps during transportation
so that missile does not get triggered by mistake.
Since the missiles are used or fired only once, there is zero tolerance for errors, and if
Poka-Yoke is not implemented and if missiles are not tested before usage, any
misfires could lead to damage to the company in the form of major costs/losses and
also a great damage to civilization as well.

Ford’s instance of Poka-Yoke

In Ford’s manufacturing unit, the engine assembly line installs two different sets of
sensors depending on the model of engine with the help of a DC electric nut runner.
The sensors are threaded, closely connected on one end. Even though the sensors are
different in sizes, it's possible for the assemblers to install the wrong sensor.

Implementation of Poka-Yoke
The company came up with two different ways to prevent this from happening:
1. Installation of photoelectric sensors to the two different sets of bins containing
each part, if the assembler selects a sensor from the wrong bin, the sensor
alarms the sound and hence the error can be monitored easily
2. Each part of the engine generates a different torque value during installation.
These values are entered in the controller system and if the wrong part is
installed, the torque value generated mismatches from the entered value. A red
LED illuminates and the process stops until the operator acknowledges the error
In the absence of the Poka-Yoke system, there would be a greater probability of
errors going unnoticed which would result in creating a significant defect in the engine
assembly.
Yazaki Industrial Co.

Yazaki industrial Co., Taiwan, is one of the major suppliers of automotive

components/spares. The warranty claims of Yazaki’s drive shaft are higher than that
expected by the company. The root cause of the quality issue was the deformation of
the welding of the welding fixture. This causes the fixture to loosen up and create noise
whilst driving.
In the absence of Poka-Yoke implementation, the assembly produced a lot of faulty
products due to which the current production system costed the company USD $85,000
per month.
The poka-yoke action was to add a stopper on the side of the welding site, providing
stability to the engine, which improved the quality rate. The production cost was actually
reduced to $61,200 USD monthly and thus 28% increase in revenue.

Examples of Poka-Yoke in the Service Industry

Restaurants

In restaurants, there are squeeze bottles for ketchup and mustard.

When the bottles are opaque, and one can’t see their contents, it's typical for the bottles
to be color coded.
Yellow is for mustard; Red is for ketchup. This is a visual warning that prevents
customer from using the wrong condiment.

Implications of not implementing Poka-Yoke

If one mixes up mustard and ketchup, then he/she might end up disliking the taste of
food and not meeting the intended / expected flavoring.

Hotels

Hospitality is a great example of implementation of Poka-Yoke. Hotels are generally

designed with the principle of improving customer experience and minimizing errors in
the customer experience journey.

The hotel facility is designed in a way to minimize the likelihood of any patron

straying outside of the service process. Many ways in which patrons might stray away
from this process include – stealing, damaging, losing keys, misusing the room, wasting
power and so on.

Some of the poka-yoke implementations include:

1. The hotel lifts operating only on using room keys. This is a security measure
installed to ensure that non-customers do not enter rooms easily, reducing risk of
 theft or unauthorized entry. Additionally, the lifts are within the line of sight of the
front-desk staff who can double check any unusual movement

2. Inside hotel rooms, the key card must be placed into the key slot near the main
door to enable power including lights. When you remove the key card and leave
the room, the power and lights go off in order to save power. In some cases, the
room door will not lock unless the key card is removed

3. One of the most required services is the availability of room service. Calling room
service and their response time is one very sensitive matter to the customer. If
poka-yoke is not implemented, problems in calling room service might also result
in response time and will not give a good impression of service. A simple poka-
yoke implementation technique is to plant an efficient calling system and which in
turn will reduce the response time as well

4. In the hotel rooms and bathrooms, electrical appliances such as irons and hair
dryers are often wired into the wall. This is done to prevent them from being
stolen or misused

Certified Public Accounting firms

The firm decides to implement poka-yoke. Poka-Yoke is an intervention in the service

encounter that attempts to properly prepare the customer for the service. The CPA firm
mails a check list to each of their customers that contains a list and a place to check it
off for each item critical to the preparation of that customer’s tax return. Example:

Required Item Check

1 Previous year’s return

2 Managed receipts

3 Mortgage information

4 Healthcare expenses

Implications of not implementing Poka-Yoke:

A CPA firm will experience delays in preparing tax returns because the customer hasn’t
provided all the information required.
Warehouse Management Services
Companies like Interlake Mecalux, provide to warehousing service firms Warehouse
management systems (WMSs), such as Easy WMS which are programs with the ability
to optimize operations and guiding and assist workers so that they complete their tasks
quickly and efficiently.

The WMS acts as a sequential poka-yoke, as the operators, with the help of

radiofrequency terminals, follow the instructions of the WMS step by step. One-by-one
all steps are shown and workers are guided as to what to do, and they have to confirm
at each level that they have completed every action in order for them to receive
subsequent commands.

Poka-Yoke makes performing numerous tasks very convenient. It helps save a lot of
time and keeps us absolutely safe by not letting us forget to perform specific actions,
thereby significantly increasing the quality of life. In absence of sequential Poka Yoke
there can be mismanagement of tasks such as roles can be misinterpreted and or not
clear to the workers and can lead to skipping of tasks, late delivery of orders or even
orders might be exchanged and thus leading to mismanagement in inventory
management and order delivery.