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"Competent (individuals) in every position, from top management to the humblest worker, know all that there is to know about their work except how to improve it. Help toward improvement can only come from outside knowledge." - W. Edwards Deming
February, 2011
By Douglas C. Wood
Are mistakes inevitable? We say that it is human to make mistakes, but to really screw it up takes a computer. But are human mistakes unavoidable?
W. Edward Deming said that 85% of a worker's effectiveness is determined by the system he works within, only 15% by his own skill. This makes sense, because if a worker makes a mistake, he usually only makes it once (or sometimes twice.) If a system makes a mistake, it makes it forever!
Major expenses
Measures of cost of quality indicate easily measured losses of12% of revenue are commonplace. Like an iceberg, the hard to measure hidden costs (still real to the bottom line) can be several times this. Are you really losing $6-9 million out of $50 million revenue to waste? The answer is yes, at a minimum. You can even be making a profit and still lose millions to waste.
You want mistakes to never happen. The only way to do this is make the system itself stop the mistakes. This is called mistake proofing, ‘Poke Yoke’ in Japanese. As a backup plan (everyone needs a plan B) the employees are empowered to stop production if they find a mistake and fix it forever. This is called ‘Jidoka’ in Japanese and Human Flow Automation in this course.
Here are the main steps to Human Flow Automation and Mistake Proofing:
At a high level, doing mistake proofing falls into two categories each with three subcategories:
- Shutdown-the most powerful
- Warning-needed when shutdown will create damage
Each has these subcategories:
- Work piece: sensing device detect abnormalities in weight, dimensions, or shape
- Work method: sensing device detects a motion error
- Fixed value: a counter indicates a stop value
The key to implementing these non-traditional cultural activities is strategy: ask the hard questions and find the answers:
- What kind of knowledge and freedom will team members need to make mistake proofing happen?
- What changes in all of our roles as we do this?
- How does human flow automation link with Five S, standard work, and TPM?
- How will we communicate and promote this effort?
How to learn more
We offer a two hour webinar on Human Flow automation including an exercise. You can find this instructor-led course here: DC Wood Course Registrations You may contact us for more information: mail: click here
Address: 13817 Bradshaw Suite B, Overland Park, KS 66221
Phone: (913) 669-4173
Fax: (913) 273-1611
http://www.dcwoodconsulting.com/