Poke Yoke: Video Game or Business Tool?

Mike — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:32:22 +0000

Poka Yoke.

You think, "Isn’t that the video game my children play?" No, that’s Pokemon, "Game Boy" game with cute animated characters. The challenge of that game is to train your Pokemon (pocket monsters) to do non-lethal battle against other Pokemon.

Poka-Yoke is the Japanese term for "mistake-proofing." Like the video game, the challenge is to see how skillfully you can mistake-proof the key tasks and processes of your business.

This means designing the product or the task so that it is difficult or impossible to do it wrong. Like the diesel fuel nozzle at the gas pump, purposely made too big to fit into a gasoline automobile.

How can you make the key tasks of your business easy to do correctly and difficult to do incorrectly? Hospitals color-code certain medications to make it easier to identify the adult dosages from the child dosages. Factories post instructions for each step of the job right at the work benches. Airline pilots use checklists to follow for landing safely (which is too crucial to trust to memory). Another technique is to remove any unneeded tools that could be used to do the task incorrectly. If the job involves using wood screws to attach something, provide a screwdriver and remove the hammer.

Try it, then test it. You, or a small team of people who do the work, can design the steps (and instructions) of doing the work in a way that makes it easy to do right and difficult to do wrong. Then test your design. Bring in a person from another department who is unfamiliar with this task. Don’t tell him/her how to do it. Ask that “clueless outsider” to do the task with the steps and instructions you have poke-yoked. If he or she can do it without your help, then your poke-yoke design is successful. If not, revise it .

When this outside person can do it correctly the first time, without help, then you and your team have earned the title Poke-Yoke Masters! You can then brag to your children, who are likely still struggling to become Pokemon Masters.

- Mike McCarthy

For more information, go to www.qualityleadershipconsulting.com

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The People Side of Lean/Six Sigma

Mike — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:17:56 +0000

“They’re not doing it. They’re no longer using the new process the team created just a few months ago at their Kaizen event. What’s going on?” Michael McCarthy explains . . .

When a Lean Sensei or Six Sigma Black Belt leads a team to design an improved process, he or she believes that the project is completed. The fallacy is “when you do it once, you’re done,” like machinery repair. Your mechanic says, “Your brake pads were worn out. We replaced them. Done. Good to go.”

The Lean or Six Sigma project is complete and the project leader tells you, “Your old process was worn out. We replaced it with a new process. Done. Good to go.”

WRONG! You’re not done. Sustaining your gains takes weeks and months. Why? A new process is done by people. A new process means a new set of behaviors: habits. Old habits die hard. Only practice, feedback, and reinforcement will accelerate adoption of a new habit.

Don’t believe me? Try writing with your non-dominant hand. It would take you months, if not years, of daily practice to become as proficient at writing left handed as you did with your right hand. It can be done, though.

When your team has been trained on the new process, they’ll do it initially. If they encounter problems, or if nobody seems to care how they do it, they’ll revert to doing it the “old way.” Within six weeks, it will be as if the Kaizen Event or DMAIC project never happened.

Sustaining your gains requires COACHING. No football coach thinks “I showed them this play once. We don’t need to practice.” They practice the new play daily, and the coach gives feedback on how well they did. He praises them when they execute the play correctly. He does it over and over until it becomes a habit.

These are the two key elements of coaching: many iterations of feedback and reinforcement. The supervisor should treat each day as “football practice.” She needs to be out walking the floor observing, giving feedback, and reinforcing correct execution of the new process. In 60 to 90 days, it will be a habit, and she can reduce the frequency of her coaching.

This is the People Side of Lean/Six Sigma, and without it, your hard-won gains won’t be sustained. For more on this subject watch for my new book, Sustain Your Gains ~ The People Side of Lean/Six Sigma. More information: http://www.qualityleadershipconsulting.com

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Janis Allen » Lean/Six Sigma

Poke Yoke: Video Game or Business Tool?

The People Side of Lean/Six Sigma