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EVERYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING.

THIS BLOG IS A COLLECTION OF QUALITY RELATED STUFF, THINGS GOING WRONG,
THINGS GOING WELL, LINKS AND SOME OTHER STUFF. GUY VAN HOOVELD

Showing newest posts with label Poka Yoke. Show older posts
Showing newest posts with label Poka Yoke. Show older posts

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2009

Poka yoke hotel keycard

scotland -41, originally uploaded by gugs.

This is a very simple example and a creative one. A card manufacturer decided to slightly
adapt the shape of the keycard. A s a result, you insert the card with your finger on
the "right" place and don't have to retry different orientations...

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LAB EL S : PO K A Y O KE , Q U AL IT Y

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2008

Interesting quality links

While browsing, I found a few interesting sites about poka yoke (mistake proofing) and
bad designs.

This one is about badly designed user interfaces, or systems:

http://www.baddesigns.com/

This one is a very nice mistake proofing site with a lot of useful information:
http://www.mistakeproofing.com/example1.html

Specifically about software mistake proofing

http://www.mistakeproofing.com/software.html

and the famous hotdog sawstop example:

the video
http://www.sawstop.com/
how it is designed
http://www.sawstop.com/how-it-works-overview.htm

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MONDAY, APRIL 21, 2008

Cans Poka Yoke

I found a can with an old design during one of my recent travels... this has been modified
for a long time in most countries so that when you open a can, you cannot get cut with
the seperate metal pull tab anymore.
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Old bad design found in Hong Kong

The recent classical design

There is another problem, in the new design the tab is moving inside the can and comes in
contact with the beverage, a potential hygiene/safety issue because the cans are not that
clean... I found an example in Italy where they have a solution for this:
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Ethernet Poka Yoke

This is an interesting example of mistake proofing for a simple connector: the well-known
ethernet cable connector... as many other people around the world, you probably have
broken the small plastic piece clicking into the female connector to secure the
connection. This is a major design flaw because those things break too easily if you move
the cable...
I just found a new type of cable with a simple mechanical protection avoiding the issue. I
am traveling a lot with such a cable and I broke a few of them very quickly... I am now
using the new design for months, not a problem.

The old design (broken)

The better design

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LAB EL S : PO K A Y O KE , Q U AL IT Y

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2007

Poka yoke on a plane

This is another typical example of Poka
Yoke (see other related post). Everybody has
seen this or used this on a plane. You have to
close the latch to get light in the toilets. This
results in everybody closing the latch the
proper way just because everybody needs
light... simple and clever.

HKG_1236
Originally uploaded by gugs

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LAB EL S : PO K A Y O KE , Q U AL IT Y

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2007

Poka Yoke
This is a very interesting concept... avoiding mistakes by design, or mistake-proofing
called the Poka Yoke principle. The principle is widely used in the industry and in many
real life situations. Well known examples including connectors you can't insert the wrong
way because they are asymetrical, or the gas nozzle example. Type of gas
(leaded/unleaded for instance in Europe) corresponds to a different diameter making
impossible to insert the leaded gas nozzle in a car with a catalyzator.
A more detailed definition can be found in wikipedia : Poka Yoke Article

I recently discovered an interesting example of Poka Yoke or similar: when you buy
medication in Europe, you'll get pills enclosed in plastic with an aluminium cover that can
much too easily be opened.
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This is happening all the time, when you take a few pills with you for traveling for
instance. The thing gets open, you lose the pill, a serious loss sometimes. If you buy
similar pills in the US or in Canada, many times you will benefit from a different design.

Step one - the package

Step two - peeling off the first layer

Step three - getting the pill

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The aluminium foil is protected by a plastic/paper kind of surface, making it impossible to

open or scratch the packaging by mistake. You need to peel off the first layer and then
you can get the pill out of the package. This is a very intelligent mistake-proof design and
probably a reasonably cheap one.