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Poka-Yoke: Improving Product Quality by Preventing Defects
If your goal is 100% zero defects, here is the book for you a completely illustrated guide to poka-yoke (mistake-proofing) for supervisors and shop-floor workers. Many poka-yoke ideas come from line workers and are implemented with the help of engineering staff or tooling or machine specialists. The result is better product quality and greater participation by workers in efforts to improve your processes, your products, and your company as a whole. The first section of the book uses a simple, illustrated format to summarize many of the concepts and main features of poka-yoke. The second section shows 240 examples of poka-yoke improvements implemented in Japanese plants. The Use Poka-yoke in study groups as a model for your improvement efforts. It may be your single most important step toward eliminating defects completely. (For an industrial engineering perspective on how source inspection and poka-yoke can work together to reduce defects to zero, see Shigeo Shingo's Zero Quality Control.)
282 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1989
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September 30, 2018
Anyone who went through World Literature 101 was required to read “The Classics”. Books such as The Odyssey not only took you on and adventure with Homer, but got you excited to take on your own adventure. Dante’s description of the 9 circles of Hell made you feel like you were there. Cervantes so vividly highlighted Quixote’s psychosis, that you actually believe he is truly a hero. These classics, and many like them, provide a exciting window to the past that sometimes cannot be appreciated until you mature. This is exactly what I experienced recently, but rather than World Literature classics, I experience this with my own personal Lean educational journey.
In my “quixotic” “odyssey” for continuous improvement – I have a goal to read a book a week in either Leadership, Improvement, Quality, Project Management or Personal Productivity. I try to stay current with the most recent research which, especially in lean publications, seems to focus heavily on Executive Leadership. These books are well written, interesting and educational, but are definitely intended for upper/executive management to lead enterprises or transformations, not for the floor grunt who survive’s on daily problem-solving.
So where are all the Lean books for the rest of us? For those we must look to The Classics – Books by Shingo and Ohno or those early books published by Norman Bodek’s Productivity Press. These books, many of which pre-date the word “Lean” were squeezed down deep on my reading list with newer sexier titles dominating the top spots. UNTIL NOW!
I got my first taste of a classic when it was suggested I read the 1989 book “Poke Yoke” (aka the Red Book) published by Productivity Press. I was able to pick up a used copy for a few bucks through Amazon. The Red Book is a follow-up to Shingo’s work Zero Quality Control. Poke Yoke gives you only 29 pages of the “what” of error proofing, but more impressively follows with 240 real life examples of error proofing broken into categories. The book is written with limited words and rather than pictures cartoons convey the improvement. I understand poke yoke is a tool, but I feel that this book conveys the tool so much better than how I learned it – Powerpoint and a few outdated pictures. The book made it very clear, when done properly you either prevent a defect, alarm when a defect is made, or stop the machine when a defect is made. Showing this book around in my team has already gotten so many creative juices flowing again.
I have been in the continuous improvement world for over 10 years, but I have finally matured enough to appreciate the value of the Lean Classic Library. My order for a few more Lean Classics has been placed. These books include: Shingo’s SMED, Non-Stock Production & Zero Quality Control and Hirano’s 5 Pillars of Visual Workplace. Nice thing is you can find these classics and many more very inexpensively if you are willing to look used.
Like the World Literature classics, I never appreciated the Lean Classics when I was told to read them, but now that I have “grown up” I can truly appreciate these works of art!
What is your favorite Lean Classic?
In my “quixotic” “odyssey” for continuous improvement – I have a goal to read a book a week in either Leadership, Improvement, Quality, Project Management or Personal Productivity. I try to stay current with the most recent research which, especially in lean publications, seems to focus heavily on Executive Leadership. These books are well written, interesting and educational, but are definitely intended for upper/executive management to lead enterprises or transformations, not for the floor grunt who survive’s on daily problem-solving.
So where are all the Lean books for the rest of us? For those we must look to The Classics – Books by Shingo and Ohno or those early books published by Norman Bodek’s Productivity Press. These books, many of which pre-date the word “Lean” were squeezed down deep on my reading list with newer sexier titles dominating the top spots. UNTIL NOW!
I got my first taste of a classic when it was suggested I read the 1989 book “Poke Yoke” (aka the Red Book) published by Productivity Press. I was able to pick up a used copy for a few bucks through Amazon. The Red Book is a follow-up to Shingo’s work Zero Quality Control. Poke Yoke gives you only 29 pages of the “what” of error proofing, but more impressively follows with 240 real life examples of error proofing broken into categories. The book is written with limited words and rather than pictures cartoons convey the improvement. I understand poke yoke is a tool, but I feel that this book conveys the tool so much better than how I learned it – Powerpoint and a few outdated pictures. The book made it very clear, when done properly you either prevent a defect, alarm when a defect is made, or stop the machine when a defect is made. Showing this book around in my team has already gotten so many creative juices flowing again.
I have been in the continuous improvement world for over 10 years, but I have finally matured enough to appreciate the value of the Lean Classic Library. My order for a few more Lean Classics has been placed. These books include: Shingo’s SMED, Non-Stock Production & Zero Quality Control and Hirano’s 5 Pillars of Visual Workplace. Nice thing is you can find these classics and many more very inexpensively if you are willing to look used.
Like the World Literature classics, I never appreciated the Lean Classics when I was told to read them, but now that I have “grown up” I can truly appreciate these works of art!
What is your favorite Lean Classic?
Displaying 1 of 1 review