SS007

Poka-Yoke

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February 2011

The summary of discussions at QualityGurus.com

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 SS007

Poka-Yoke

The summary of discussions at QualityGurus.com

February 2011

What is Poka-yoke? • Level 2 : Put the control system it will detect the
• Shingo advocates the concept of zero quality con- defect as it is being made & remove or quarantine.
trol by arguing that inspection processes or the e.g. alarms sound (Spell checks in MS office)
use of statistical control should be completely • Level 1 : Stop the defect from reaching the next

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eliminated. He believes that quality should be operation (e.g. Inspection, checklist, color cod-
controlled at the source of the problem and not ing)
after the problem has manifested itself. He rec-
ommends that inspection should be incorporated E
within the process and at the point where the prob-
lem has been identified and from where it should

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be eliminated. 1 Advantages:
• Poka yoke (pronounced poh-kah yoh-kay) comes • Preventing bad products getting passed customer.
from two Japanese words • Detect mistakes as they occur.
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– yokeru means to avoid • Eliminating defects before they occur.
– poka means inadvertent errors.
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– Thus, poka yoke more or less translates to
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avoiding inadvertent errors.
From the errors of
others,
a wise man corrects E
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his own.
~Syrus
Three types
• Shigeo Shingo recognized three types of poka-
yoke for detecting and preventing errors in a mass-
lit

production system :
1. The contact method identifies product defects by
testing the product’s shape, size, color, or other
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physical attributes.
2. The fixed-value (or constant number) method
alerts the operator if a certain number of move-
ments are not made.
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3. The motion-step (or sequence) method deter-

mines whether the prescribed steps of the process
have been followed.

Three levels
• Level 3 : Eliminating/prevent the defect opportu-
nity at design level (or at the source) e.g. One-way
assembly (Electrical three pin top only put in one
way, A USB drive can be inserted one way only).
1
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