Jidoka 自働化

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Jidoka 自働化

Stop at every defect.

: → Do not accept poor quality,
→ : → do not produce poor quality,
→ : do not pass on poor quality.

Jidoka rebalances where attention is spent between understanding expectations, doing the work, and handing off deliverables to other teams. While the last part is usually almost nonexistent—except when fixing issues—it becomes essential in Jidoka and pull flow. This renewed attention also reduces upstream demand because every team strives to get it right the first time.

The story behind the kanji

It is not about automation. It is about having the human in control. That's why there is another Kanji put in Jidoka.

At the heart of Jidoka is the capacity of built-in quality, this quality comes from poka yoke.

Inspection does not improve quality, nor guarantee it. Inspection is too late. The quality, good or bad, is already in the product.

SHIGEO SHINGO Japanese Industrial Engineer

Automation with a human touch 働

In a world where the industrial revolution will happen in tech, we need to keep in mind that a valuable work is when we can automate the realisation but keep the decision making.

References

Lean without jidoka is just fordism
Ma
Don't write bug