There are some strange terms used in association with Lean as well as in modern life.  Here's a few of the new words for 2015 that caught my attention:

• hangry, adj.: (informal) bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger
• manspreading, n.: the practice whereby a man, especially one travelling on public transport, adopts a sitting position with his legs wide apart, in such a way as to encroach on an adjacent seat or seats
• cat cafe, n.: a café or similar establishment where people pay to interact with cats housed on the premises
• wine o’clock, n.: an appropriate time of day for starting to drink wine
• rando, n.: (informal) a person one does not know, especially one regarded as odd, suspicious, or engaging in socially inappropriate behaviour

and…

• lifehack, n.: A strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one’s time and daily activities in a more efficient way. Uncommon solutions to common problems. Unusual ways of using everyday objects to make life easier. Simple and practical tips that may not be obvious.

I recently heard a great travel tip that an Airline pilot used to ensure he never forgot his wallet and passport when leaving his hotel room.  He always placed one of his uniform shoes in the safe under his wallet and passport, therefore always picking up the items just before leaving.

This got me thinking that this lifehack was more than just making life easier, but more error proofing. The method ensured that the Pilot would always pick up his wallet and passport as he would always require his uniform shoe. So, think lifehack, think error proofing, think Poka-Yoke.

Poka-Yoke is the Japanese term for error proofing. It‘s the use of imaginative methods that make inadvertent errors impossible, or at least very difficult, to make.

Cutting the cost of quality by ‘automating’ inspection and reducing the number of defects that move to the next stage of the process, or are dispatched to the customer.  This applies particularly to tasks where a high level of vigilance is needed; where the consequences of error are great or operator skill / experience level can have a high influence on output quality.

1. Identify parts of the process where defect levels are high, or where their occurrence is costly.
2. Use problem solving techniques, such as brainstorming, fishbone analysis, the 5 WHYs, etc to identify the root causes of failure.
3. Identify the best type of Poka-Yoke to tackle the problem:

• Contact type – the use of shape, dimensions, or other physical properties to detect the contact or non-contact of a particular feature, e.g. parts only fit one way
• Constant number type – detects errors if a fixed number of parts, actions, or movements have not been completed, e.g. data entry fields on orders processing computer screens
• Performance sequence type – detects errors if the fixed steps in a sequence have not been performed, e.g. a pre-programmed checklist

4. Identify the best approach to prompting corrective action:

• Control type – prevents an incorrect action from taking place
• Warning type – brings attention to an incorrect action but does not prevent its execution

5. Design the appropriate Poka-Yoke as well as the corrective action, test to see that it works and introduce it as the new way of working.

If you’d like to join our Lean community click here. Once a month you’ll receive new ideas and interesting content about improving performance.