Monday, September 05, 2011

Mistake Proofing--why we should love annoyances

A central element of Lean is developing processes which MUST produce a correct result.  Don't get distracted by the Japanese term jidoka; we simply mean by it "mistake proofing." 
Process excellence buddy Dan, a.k.a. "The Kaizeneer" recently posted a short video which is an excellent example.  It lasts a minute and illustrates years of expreience.

Several points of note:
-This is a non-manufacturing example.  You can mistatke-proof many processes.
-It is very simple.  This improvement required virtually no cost and very little time.
-It makes the process work, every time, with no special instructions. No emails or documents or posters required.
-It solves an annoyance.  The small things, the proverbial "pebbles in the shoe" are the source of many small improvements like this.
Look for some annoyances and see what you can go. 
Keep learning.


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