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Kids Learning About Lean
October 22, 2007

SaukValley.com - Serving Dixon, Sterling & Rock Falls:

Here's a news story about career day at a High School and someone talking about Lean (I guess Wahl, the clipper company, is using Lean):

"'Poka yoke ... allows you to dummy-proof something to guarantee your success' and 'Takt time' is when a company makes only enough product to fill its orders. The new language is part of a Japanese-inspired, lean manufacturing philosophy that helps companies produce products with the least amount of labor, equipment, materials and power - 'so, you're working smarter, not harder,' Segura said."

I'll nitpick (because I can) about the Poka yoke definition. I really dislike the phrase "dummy proof" or "fool proof." There's another Japanese phrase, "Bakta Yoke," I believe, that translates to dummy proof. Poka yoke means mistake proof... a less judgmental phrase. Maybe this is urban legend, but there's a story about how Ohno (or Shingo) used the phrase "dummy proof" and somebody started crying at the factory, so they moved to error proof.

But, the phrase "Bakta Yoke" is still in Ohno's book Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production. Does anyone have a better recollection of the history?

Either way, I think the phrase "dummy proof" misses the point, and ranks low on the "respect for people" scale. Errors aren't made because people are dummies, or because they don't care. The system made it too easy for an error to occur, that's the assumption we have to go by, so solutions are most often with the system. This is different than Western management, which typically points the finger of blame first.

Posted by Mark Graban on October 22, 2007 | Comments (1)