Poka-Yoke Mindset

Poka-yoke means making things so that people don’t make mistakes or catch them quickly. Shigeo Shingo, who worked at Toyota, came up with this idea. He wanted to make cars better and faster.

Few fun facts:

• It used to be called baka-yoke, which means making things so that fools don’t mess up. But that was rude, so they changed it to poka-yoke.

• Poka-yoke can be used for anything, not just making things. For example, a poka-yoke thing can be a tool that checks your spelling, a beep that reminds you to buckle up, or a machine that scans the price of things you buy.

• Poka-yoke has three kinds of ways to work: 

  1. Contact method:, Uses things like shape, size, or color to spot mistakes; 

  2. Fixed-value method:, Makes sure you do something a certain number of times or ways; and 

  3. Motion-step methods: tell you if you forgot or skipped something.

• Poka-yoke can be done in five steps: say what the problem is, watch how things are done, find out why mistakes happen, fix the problem, and check if it works.

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