Friday Fact – Poka Yoke in Air

With the recent tragedy of Ethiopian Airlines and Jet Airways crisis, airlines are in current focus. Obviously, safety in the air is a serious concern and needs to be revisited.
However, this Friday sharing some Poka Yoke (error proofing) examples from our experiences at flight kitchen operations. It highlights the features of the operation that make it top quality service up in the air!
In this complex operating environment, it is not surprising to see poka yokes in use. Some examples follow:
1. All trolleys that are loaded onto aircraft have a sticker on them to identify which flights they are on, and other data about the trolleys contents. But some stickers are white, to show that the trolley should be offloaded at the destination, whereas others are yellow, to show that the trolley should remain on the plane for the return to its point of origin.
2. All tray layup work stations have photographs of the different tray settings.
3. All meals are color-coded by day of production to help ensure that no out-of-date meals are loaded onto planes.
4. Meal trays with special meals on them (vegetarian, kosher, halal, etc.) are also color-coded so that cabin crew can more easily distinguish between them.
If Poka Yoke can be implemented and is delivering results in such complex – time-pressed set up, are you designing error-proof processes?
What are examples of Poka Yoke in your industry?