More than 200 million eggs were called back in Northern California in the United States of America after they were suspected of contamination with salmonella, a type of bacteria that causes serious illness and deaths, particularly among children and elderly people.

The above incident is a clear portrayal of a mistake driven process that has affected a lot of individuals in the country as well as the trade and commerce. The above incident is associated with one of the largest poultry farms in the US who produced around 2.3 million eggs a day.

Mistakes are a part of businesses. It is the mistakes that rectify our mistakes and guide us in building more efficient processes capable of providing optimum results. They control the entire drive and help one to steer the business to garner more revenues and better platforms to conduct businesses in order to strengthen the foundation of the business.

Poka Yoke is a great way to proof your businesses from mistakes and keep mishaps like these at bay from happening in the businesses. ‘Mistake Proofing’ or ‘Inadvertent Error Prevention’ that acts and facilitates the manufacturer in avoiding mistakes and errors from sabotaging their business platforms and the model. It is a lean manufacturing process that assists the manpower in optimizing their work processes and avoids equipment related mistakes.

Poka Yoke is a great method to avoid human errors and fool-proof the manufacturing process from errors and mistakes. Its purpose is to eliminate product defects and subsiding the errors involved in the process. The term on a broader concept defines the behavior-shaping constraint in order to train the workforce to design a process which is error proof and more efficient in providing results that are desired by the manufacturing unit.

There are basically three types of Poka Yoke that can be used to remove errors and prevent their recurrence in a manufacturing unit. The three are mentioned below:

• Contact method – It identifies the defects in the product by testing the product’s physical attributes like shape, size, colors etc.
• Fixed value method – Fixed value method or constant method helps the operator in identifying missing rotations or steps that might have been left out during the manufacturing process
• Motion step method – This method checks if the prescribed motions for the manufacturing has been followed or not. It is also called sequence method.

There are many advantages of using Poka Yoke in the manufacturing systems. They are as follows:

• Helps in reducing training time for the workforce
• It helps in eliminating many operations that are related to quality control
• It also helps the operators in focusing on other tasks by reducing their work from repetitive operations
• It encourages more and more team members to involve in work improvement oriented approaches that ultimately adds value to the work processes of the organization
• Reduces the rejection rates of the manufacturer’s products
• Reduces the reaction time of the organization in an emergency or in situations of need

Team Faber has been helping clients across industries and geographies with Poka Yoke techniques which helps them to eliminate product defects and subsiding the errors involved in the process thus leading to improvement and growth.