Lean Manufacturing Tools Series-" work cells " (part-9)

Work Cells – A building block of lean manufacturing
                If Lean Manufacturing were a building, then the bricks that lay the foundation of lean manufacturing, particularly with assembly lines, would be work cells. The fruit of the work cell implementation is a more efficient, stronger assembly line with higher quality products, happier employees, and a safer work environment. Work cells belong to a type of manufacturing referred to as cellular manufacturing. The concept behind this type of setup is exactly how it sounds: on a certain floor or line, there exists a string of equipment and workstations that promotes an efficient flow of inventory and materials from raw material to final, assembled product. The important aspect to note about cellular manufacturing is the idea that it minimizes transportation and waiting time, which makes the process ideal for quality leaders to implement. Using the concept of cellular manufacturing as a base, then the work cell is a group of equipment, workstations, and/or personnel that are physically located in a single area and allows for the group of workers and equipment to produce an entire product or group of products completely from start to finish. It can be thought of as a small version of the entire assembly line, complete with its own specific processes, teams, equipment, operating guidelines, and quality standards. The alternative to cellular manufacturing is the “batch and queue” system, in which the product is produced in stages, then allowed to sit for a period of time in a queue while it is waiting to get to the next workstation.If the production line is large enough, this leads to large amounts of inventory waiting in various queues, incurring costs to the company and taking resources away from the production line. Additionally, the line must become much more complex because additional machines and personnel are needed to transport the product between batches. With cellular manufacturing, the work cell absorbs the queue and ensures that inventory is kept to a minimum by constantly producing a quality product inside of the cell.
              The company that should be most interested in using this tool is the one that finds themselves bogged down by excess inventory and slow processes. Another, less obvious telltale sign that cellular manufacturing is necessary is workers that are unhappy with their job, because production is directly proportional to job satisfaction. The company will also find themselves very slow to react to demand changes and cost reduction techniques. The excess inventory directly drives these factors. Not every company is a good candidate for shifting to work cells and cellular manufacturing. Some companies simply do not have a manufacturing process that is long and complicated enough to justify work cells. Other companies produce products that are not able to be split into different assembly steps, leading to a convergent line at the very end of the line, and not allowing any room for work cells. While these are a couple of situations in which work cells will not necessarily be the best choice for a company, a large majority of companies would benefit greatly from the positive impact this model has on their inventory and production costs and times.                           Work cells should be designed at the highest levels. While the workers must be trained in the conduct of business inside of the work cells, the actual system should be designed with a 30,000 foot view. Managers should also be trained to operate their cells efficiently to keep the bottlenecks to a minimum.
            If utilized properly, a work cell system can reduce and possibly eliminate the need for inventory. It will also foster higher quality due to constant improvement and a continuous worker from one end of the cell to the other.

Everyday I will publish one tool's description.So visit my blog for next article where I will discuss about"SMED"

Prepared By: Md. Tarikul Islam

                        01912885383

                         jonytex073@gmail.com

Lean Manufacturing Tools Series-" Heijunka" (part-8)

Distribute the workload evenly – Heijunka
     In a classroom, it is easy to assume that demand for products remains constant. All of the models for supply chain management work out very well and demand can be leveled and predicted when it happens at a constant and predictable rate. In reality, however, demand is anything but constant and predictable, and needs a system or practice that mitigates the fluctuations in demand so the manufacturing can process orders on the supply side at a more constant rate. It should come as no surprise that a varying demand produces waste. By encountering peaks and valleys on the assembly line, large groups of parts are backed up and lead to downtime, idle workers, and excess inventory. The entire objective of all supply systems, led by heijunka, or work leveling, is to make sure that the assembly line produces a product in a constant, flowing manner. The basis behind production leveling is to manufacture as small a batch as possible, so that fluctuations in demand do not affect the output very dramatically, and the production line may be given time to adapt to unexpected changes. This can be accomplished in a few ways, but one of the more prevalent ways is to set up an assembly line such that variation is accomplished inside of the line. By doing this, the same equipment will manufacture different models or different classes of products with the same machinery. Unless there is a major swing in demand that affects the entire industry, the line will be sheltered from fluctuations, more constant output will be achieved, and waste will be reduced dramatically. Of course, heijunka cannot be made possible without the advent of modern machinery and processes that allow for one assembly line to be able to output multiple products. Henry Ford, when he revolutionized the manufacturing process, built his entire philosophy around the philosophy that an assembly line can be more efficient if one worker was able to perform their work as efficiently as possible and became an expert at one task. According to his system, this could only be accomplished by repetitive tasks that are accomplished by skilled employees repeatedly. As one can imagine, this was completely changed in the last two decades with the advent and industrialization of robots that can perform multiple tasks just as efficiently as it can a single task. This makes heijunka a much more viable possibility, as no time is lost when the production line shifts focus from one product to another. This lean tool can be used in many situations. It does not have to be specifically geared towards manufacturing, but like most other lean tools, was created for it. Heijunka can also be used when involving paperwork reduction projects, project management, cost saving measures, and many other business related situations. Any time a company wants to streamline their processes such that an increase or reduction in demand for a product, whether that product is a service, a form, or a project output, they should be able to benefit from the process of production leveling. The best way to demonstrate what is possible with heijunka is by illustrating with an example. A car manufacturer has 6 different car models that come out of the same plant. Up until now, there were 6 different assembly lines that put the cars together. The assembly workers were great at putting together their specific piece of the puzzle, and were always able to handle whatever was thrown their way. About 7 years ago, demand for all cars, in general, dropped dramatically. The need for 6 assembly lines to be putting out cars is not necessary. However, in order to cut back in production, the car company had to close one of their production lines and stop making one of their models, something that they did not want to do strategically. They employed heijunka to help them solve this problem. They closed two of their lines, and reprogrammed the other four so that they could each put out the 6 models that defined their business. This was evident when there was a large decrease in the demand for one of their models. The company‟s competitor came out with a new, more efficient model that is comparable to one of the models the company puts out. The senior leadership knew that demand for their model would be dramatically reduced, so they started producing less of that model. All they had to do in order to accomplish that was to tell the assembly line to skip that model every fifth time it came around. Their production of that one model was reduced by 20% and the production of the other 6 models was unaffected. They were able to immediately react to the shift in demand, one of heijunka‟s end goals.
This tool, while used frequently in the assembly line, can also be applied by middle to upper management in many different aspects of business. As stated before, there are plenty of processes that can benefit from heijunka, and it should always be a tool inside the box of a good, capable manager, that should be evaluated from time to time.
Everyday I will publish one tool's description.So visit my blog for next article where I will discuss about"work cells"

Prepared By: Md. Tarikul Islam

                        01912885383

                         jonytex073@gmail.com

Lean Manufacturing Tools Series-" Pull System" (part-7)

Pull System – A Key Lean Concept

                It is common for many businesses to think that lean manufacturing ends on the manufacturing floor. There are way too many who also believe that lean manufacturing can only be used to maximize efficiency in production and reduce costs. Of course, as you can imagine, that is not true, as lean manufacturing can be used to manage the supply chain in conjunction with the manufacturing process.
With Just in Time Manufacturing, or JIT, the amount of inventory is reduced and a product is only manufactured when a product is necessary. By using Kaban and other lean tools, JIT can become the ideal supply chain system, greatly reducing costs for the business and making it easy for companies to react to demand signals with agility and speed. This is a great example of a “pull” system, which is the ideal way of running a supply chain., as compared to a “push” system.


A pull system is exactly what it sounds like. The production of a product or system is varied depending strictly on the demand from the customer or the market, not from forecasts or previous performance. While most businesses strive to use a pull business model from end user to shop floor, it is rare for this to happen, as there are usually some aspects of the supply chain that are push systems. A pull system is one in which the supply chain sends a product through the supply chain because there is a specific demand for that one product, as opposed to creating inventory and “pushing” the product out to distributors, wholesalers, vendors, or customers so they have to keep inventory, or worse, the production company has to keep inventory. A “push” supply chain is the exact opposite: they consist of many warehouses, retail stores, or other outlets in which large amounts of inventory are kept to satisfy customer demand on the spot.
            As previously mentioned, it is very rare to see a system that is completely run on pull versus push methodologies. For example, one supply chain may be run on pull methodologies from the distributor to the customer. When the customer orders a product from the distributor, the distributor turns that order around immediately and orders that product from the manufacturer. The product is never sitting on the distributor‟s shelves, and the supply chain from the distributor to the customer is strictly a pull system. However, the manufacturer has been producing that product steadily for the last 6 months, whether there has been a demand or not. When a distributor orders the product, they pull it off their shelves and send it to the distributor (or possibly the customer). This is not based on demand from the customer, and is a great example of a push supply chain integrated with a pull supply chain. When a business employs JIT and the pull model of business, they are taking on a few risks, but at the same time they are reducing costs dramatically. Because they do not have to stock inventory at that point in the supply chain, there is no risk of lost investment in that inventory, and they will not be scrambling when a demand signal changes based on seasonality, current events, publicity, or any of other reasons why customer demand and purchasing behaviors change. On the downside, pull supply chains are much more complex and harder to manage. In order to meet the ever increasing demands of the customer with respect to customer service, and accurate, timely delivery of products, complex systems are necessary to track the status of orders and deliveries. While this has been made easier by modern technology, it is still a fight to maintain these systems in their ideal working order.
A perfect example of an almost ideal pull supply chain is the Dell business model. Michael Dell started manufacturing computers out of his dorm room while in college. The difference between him and his competitors is that he did not own a storefront or a manufacturing plant. He had to keep his inventory down to a minimum, if any at all, and did not have room for parts storage, no matter how small the components may have been.To counter these constraints, Dell created the ultimate business model: customers built their computer's specifications on the internet, and using those specifications, the computer was built. Not a single spare part was left over, and Dell had no inventory, as each computer was shipped out the door as soon as it was manufactured.
There are many businesses that can benefit from the pull methodology of supply chain management, and it should be the goal of most businesses to make as many aspects of their supply chain pull systems instead of push systems as possible. The businesses that can most benefit from these strategies are manufacturing, more so than any other business. Because they run the greatest risk of losses when they have unsold inventory, they benefit the most from this incredible lean tool.
Everyday I will publish one tool's description.So visit my blog for next article where I will discuss about"Heijunka"

Prepared By: Md. Tarikul Islam

                        01912885383

                         jonytex073@gmail.com

Lean Manufacturing Tools Series-" Kanban " (part-6)

Kanban 

Push to Pull Processing Just in time manufacturing (JIT) is the practice of maintaining and manufacturing just enough inventory to fulfill the orders that have been placed, and not a single piece more. With the advent of next day shipping, modern tracking systems, and worldwide interconnectivity through the internet and satellites, JIT is not only possible, but some businesses could not run without it. Their margins are so razor thin that they would go out of business if they had to allocate any more money toward inventory than they already do. If JIT is the entire system that defines the pull version of production and manufacturing, then Kanban is the signal that triggers the production. Kanban is the path toward JIT achievement, and consists of cards, balls, or other devices like markers or trolleys. It can also be an electronic signal, and many companies are using RFID‟s as the signal in Kanban. Developed by Toyota, Kanban is an integral part of Lean manufacturing and is best used alongside Kaizen and JIT. Unless the company that wants to use the Kanban tool is fully versed in lean manufacturing and all of the tools associated with it, it should not be used. To fully and properly implement the process, they have to coincide with each other and require a complete analysis of the manufacturing plant and all of the processes associated with it. When the Kanban tool is properly used, the JIT manufacturing plan can effectively work. This means that a company can use all of its inventory to send to the end user, instead of stacking it on their shelves, freeing up capital for the company so they are able to expand and improve their bottom line. The effective use of Kanban can be demonstrated with a simple example. An auto parts manufacturer wants to expand their product line to include brake pads, but they do not have the cash necessary to purchase the equipment needed to start manufacturing the quality brake pads they want to start building. Management then got together and decided they would try to slim down costs by implementing lean manufacturing processes. After accomplishing a few other things, they turn toward JIT manufacturing to start producing some of their larger parts, one of them being pistons. They have accurate sales data for the previous year on their piston line of products. They decide to cut back on the manufacturing so they can get rid of their backlog and inventory and shift to the JIT system. One of the company‟s major customers has decided to help the company in employing their JIT system. They have agreed to help them use the Kanban system by keeping track of their inventory and using the company‟s standardized Kanban cards. These cards contain all of the information about the pistons… their model number, their dimensions, weight, color, etc. There is one card for every 50 pistons. When the customer runs out of pistons, they send the company one of their Kanban cards This triggers the manufacturing of more pistons and subsequently more pistons are made… 50 to be exact. The Kanban card represents a signal from the customer that more inventory is necessary in order to keep up with demand. The 50 pistons are not manufactured until the company that needs them is in need of them, and this is the epitome of JIT manufacturing. It should be pointed out that a true JIT manufacturing system is an incredibly complex system that can quickly force complex issues that may turn out to show significant costs or losses to the company that they may not be able to handle. A perfect example of this is the creation of a bar code, internet processing, and assembly line manufacturing system. When introducing the internet processing system, there is an entire system that is now being utilized by the company that requires upkeep, maintenance, and quality assurance. Without these, the system will quickly render itself ineffective. Of course, because of these requirements, additional costs are incurred and the costs saved by switching to a JIT system may not be realized. The bar code is represented by the yellow lightening in Figure (1), which portrays the signal that is generated anytime a customer requires an order. That signal, or The Kanban, goes straight to the supplier to order more material, as well as the fabricator to begin assembling additional product.

Additionally, the timeliness and quality of the product may be effected when switching to a JIT system. Because they are waiting for an item to become depleted without ordering more of the inventory, the order will always be rushed and with that comes the hurried atmosphere that is the backdrop for errors and waste. The company may also lose its unique selling position if they are to fall behind their competitors in speed of delivery of a product, and they may lose the market share associated with those types of customers. While it is not the answer to every problem a company faces with their supply chain, JIT manufacturing is a great tool that some businesses may find very useful to integrate into some, if not all, of their processes. It is strongly recommended that upper level management be the ones who decide the implementation strategy of this effective tool, and a complete redesign of the supply system be rethought. JIT, if done properly, has the potential to save companies a substantial amount of money, particularly if they are involved with manufacturing and distribution. By reducing the inventory necessary to meet the demand of the customer, the company is investing in their own business through cost reduction.
Everyday I will publish one tool's description.So visit my blog for next article where I will discuss about"pull system "

Prepared By: Md. Tarikul Islam

                        01912885383

                         jonytex073@gmail.com

Lean Manufacturing Tools Series-" Kaizen " (part-5)

Kaizen – The Wheel Keeping Lean Running
                                   When Tiger Woods won his first Master‟s championship, what did he do the next day? Did he rest on his hands and take a few days off, congratulating himself because he officially was the best in the world at that very moment? No, instead, he was on the golf course, fixing the very few things that he noticed wrong with his swing during the 72 holes of golf he had just finished playing. Businesses can learn something from Tiger, and it probably isn't what you think. Instead of resting on his laurels, Tiger decided that he would constantly be improving his game. As you can probably guess, this is one of Tiger‟s few secrets to becoming the absolute best at his sport. While businesses can learn from Tiger‟s skill, perseverance, concentration, and focus, more importantly, businesses should learn to focus on Tiger‟s example of constant improvement. Luckily, there is a process that already exists that systemizes the ability to constantly be improving one‟s business. Enter the Kiazen business practices. Kaizen, as you can imagine, got its first start in Japan, and can be directly traced back to account for a large portion of Japan‟s success as a country in the days following World War II. It is now accepted as common culture within most places of business and is adopted by the most successful people and business without fail. It is also used in the self improvement area of development, but the main focus of this article is in the business management application. Kaizen is the process of constant improvement in all processes, procedures, and methods that drive a business by focusing on small, continuous improvements in everything every single employee does in that company. While it is easy to chalk this up as a very helpful production tool and lean manufacturing tool, the reality is that Kaizen starts to truly come alive when it is incorporated into daily business practiced by every single member of the company, from the CEO all the way down to the most untrained, new line worker. As can be see When taken on board, Kaizen teaches people to think about every single aspect of their business at all times. In this day of automation and consistent, repetitive tasks, this usually poses the biggest hurdle for the process to take effect. When the workers finally do decide to internalize the efficiency process, they are taught to keep an open mind about every single thing they do, and then use the scientific method to identify, deduce, troubleshoot, and improve


any inefficiencies that they may see.As demonstrated in Figure (1), Kaizen is a constant business process, with each stage in the cycle feeding and merging in with each other for a constant state of improvement, leading to the leanest company and processes possible with the most self propelled improvement culture allowed. The end result of using this business practice is a more streamlined business that has employees that continue with the process of improvement almost automatically, whether you tell them to or not. In the following example, you‟ll see how the Kaizen business practices can be incorporated into the everyday life of any business. Frank works in an office cubicle in which he processes a 2 page claimant form for returns of a company‟s product. This claim form is a document that is filled out by the customer, Frank himself, or the customer service representative that talks to the customer over the phone. Frank‟s job is to review the claimant‟s form, decide whether the claim is a valid claim for reimbursement, refund, or denial. A few forms even end up going to the legal department because either the customer is threatening legal action or there is a vulnerability in the legal policies of the company that may someday lead to a lawsuit. Unfortunately, Frank‟s job is very tedious and after reading over 100 claims per day, he quickly becomes tired, bored, and unhappy with the monotony. He then was ordered by his manager to attend Kaizen business training. When Frank came back, he realized there were quite a few problems with the way they were going about processing claims. First, Frank noticed that he was finding that there was a lot of unnecessary information requested on the claim form. By restructuring the form, Frank got the size of the form down to one page, saving the company money on paper costs, as well as time needed to process the claim. He also found that the decision to send a claim to legal was one that anybody could make, with a certain amount of training and guidance. He suggested to his manager that the customer services representatives, which accounted for over 80% of the forms, should be trained to decide whether a form goes to legal or him, and cut him out of the loop of reviewing the forms. This saved the company tens of thousands of dollars as well as cut about 2 days of processing time off of those applications. As you can see, the process can be practiced by anyone in the workplace, not just CEO‟s or lean managers. In fact, when Kaizen is internalized by a company, it will only become effective if every single member of the company jumps on board with the changes. Because of the small change nature of the practice, if this is not internalized by all, the company may only see small changes in their bottom line. If practiced correctly, a business that employs Kaizen thinking will always have an improving bottom line. They will be constantly thinking of ways on the worker level to improve their own jobs, even if it is slightly and borderline immeasurable. After a short period of time, however, many small changes turn into big changes (for the better) to the bottom line.

Prepared By: Md. Tarikul Islam

                        01912885383

                         jonytex073@gmail.com

Lean Manufacturing Tools Series-" JIT or just in time " (part-4)

JIT – The Backbone of Lean Manufacturing

For many businesses, the biggest expense they face is inventory cost. The never ending struggle of having enough inventory to fulfill orders and leave room for growth while keeping enough cash on hand to meet any need they may meet is the number one cause for business failures, according to the Small Business Association. There are many ways around the skyrocketing costs of carrying a large amount of inventory, and a just in time, or JIT inventory management is one that can increase the business's bottom line and return on investment. The JIT inventory management strategy is one that is based on the idea that a business can order exactly the right amount of inventory necessary to fulfill their upcoming orders and not a single piece more. This reduces the cost of warehouse space, transportation costs, and other costs that can be reduced by this form of lean manufacturing. The philosophy associated with this theory is that inventory is considered to be waste, and the lean process of JIT will eliminate that waste. By exposing the hidden causes of inventory, a set or series of signals can be developed that define what the company can use to measure and regulate the inventory necessary to meet the demand needs. Identifying the signals that guide the inventory demand and calculating, harnessing, and predicting the same signals is at the core of the JIT system. Couple this with today‟s modern day next day shipping capabilities, and you have a very capable JIT system. The signals necessary to make a JIT system successful are able to be generated with the modern UPC and online tracking systems. By tracking sales and the patterns that follow a business can plot the demand necessary, manufacture the products, and send them out next-day shipping. This model made famous by quite a few companies, but mostly by Dell computers, can greatly increase the quality as well as efficiency of a business. A second aspect of JIT manufacturing is in the setup of the manufacturing plant. The workers, as well as the machines in the plant are oftentimes multi functional, allowing flexibility in the plant‟s ability to manufacture parts as necessary, independent of equipment or personnel status. With small lot sizes, this is the perfect setup for a dynamic, demand-driven supply chain.


As can be seen in Figure, in a JIT system, customer orders are generated in a variety of ways. But each one of those ways generates a signal that is processed by the sales department, represented by the lightening bolts in the diagram. Many times, the sales department is nothing more than a remote server that is capable of taking and distributing orders in a JIT system. The necessary components and raw materials are calculated, and the signal is sent to the suppliers and the fabrication assembly to start manufacturing the product. As you can see, because each order generates a new signal, no inventory is incurred. Dell computers is a perfect example of JIT manufacturing. By getting started in the business by manufacturing computers out of his dorm room, Michael Dell quickly learned that he could not spend all of his money on stockpiled parts and equipment. He decided that his computers would be designed exactly to the specifications to the customer, and his selling point would be along the same lines. Without realizing it, his business was the perfect example of JIT manufacturing. His company was founded on the idea that any average person can log on to the internet, and with a little bit of assistance, can identify the parts necessary to build a computer from scratch. When the customer ordered the computer, Michael, in trying to come up with a solution for his dilemma of hot having any money or location to house all of the pieces needed to assemble a computer, stored a few few parts he would need to get the job done, then buy and manufacture new parts, just as soon as the customer orders them. The raw materials are re-ordered, sometimes automatically, and the end user gets a computer that they build online within 15 minutes! Sometimes the end result effects are not always as perfect as planned. When Toyota decided to shift to a JIT manufacturing process, they hit quite a few bumps in their process capability. The problem that Toyota found is one that will plague all JIT systems that do not make contingency plans for a quickly generated, unannounced increase in demand. Since the entire supply chain system is built around the flexibility and speed of a company to respond to a demand, they do not have the ability to meet large quantity orders quickly. Normally, this is fine, since the large quantities can be forecasted by the signals generated and production increased to meet the demand. However, sometimes demand rapidly increases without any significant explanation. Sometimes it is due to unplanned media coverage, and sometimes it is just due to the viral success of the product. Whatever the reason, the entire supply chain has to be redesigned and pushed to its capacity when one of these unexpected increases in demand shows.
JIT manufacturing was the wave of the future a few years ago, and while it has actually worked for some companies, most have unsuccessfully tried to implement it into their systems. In order to success, JIT manufacturing requires the perfect combination of speed, management, and product… something not many companies have. However, those that do find themselves on the receiving end of severe quality increases and cost decreases.

Prepared By: Md. Tarikul Islam

                        01912885383

                         jonytex073@gmail.com

Lean Manufacturing Tools Series-"Poka-Yoke or mistake proofing " (part-3)

Use Poka-Yoke to Rest Easy
           The purpose of Six Sigma is to reduce defects to an acceptable level more consistently. This can be accomplished with a focused attention and everlasting drive toward improving the quality of the processes that are used during manufacturing and other aspects of the business. Unfortunately, even the most lean and highest quality processes have one unavoidable, detrimental flaw. We are only human, and mistakes will always be made. But there is hope, as there is a certain lean tool that may actually assist in removing the human error factor from the equation. While it is impossible to completely eliminate the possibility of removing mistakes from the workplace, it can be possible to make the probability of them occurring so low, that they are virtually impossible. The technique of mistake proofing a process or workstation is called Poka-yoke, and is one of the most effective ways of reducing the number of defects over the course of time. The basic premise of the practice is that the process or conditions involved are designed in such a way that it is virtually impossible for a human, no matter what amount or training or background, to make a mistake when attempting to perform the task. If the quality manager, or any manager for that manner, of a plant or process starts noticing an unexplained increase in the number of defects in a part of a process, the answer may lie in Poka-yoke.Another way to approach the decision to use Poka-yoke is by interviewing the workers themselves. Frequently they have anecdotes that outline how easy it is to make mistakes that can only be classified as mistakes. Additionally, you can audit your processes and identify certain elements that are critical to quality (CTQ), or have CTQ characteristics associated with them. These are perfect candidates for mistake proofing because a flaw in a CTQ can be detrimental to the entire product‟s performance. The key attribute behind mistake proofing is to keep the processes simple, and anticipate the locations in the process where the mistakes are most likely to happen. Then you can use methods like shaping tools and putting tools on lanyards so that the mistakes cannot happen without the blatant change of the tool‟s function or scope. Let‟s use an example of a manufacturing plant that is piecing together a piece of electronic equipment to place on board locomotives, as can be seen in the “before” section of Figure. The electronic piece of equipment has a cover that must be installed using a grounded screwdriver, in order to prevent the discharge of static electricity into the card.

A manager started realizing an increasing trend in the breakdown of quality of the results that the electronic equipment was putting out. The voltages that were being produced were going out of specification much more frequently than before, and the manager decided to investigate. She found that the erroneous output was a function of a card that is installed by a workstation on the other side of the line from where the covers are installed. At first, it appeared that there was a severe manufacturing defect in the cards and the workstation that was producing the card. The manager decided to take a closer look, or a “deep dive” and find out through a “fish bone diagram” and root cause analysis what all of the possible causes of a faulty card could have been. After this was done, she realized that there was a possibility the cover was not being installed properly. It was this time that she monitored the worker installing the covers. 1 out of every 5 times, the worker used a screwdriver that was not properly grounded. This is shown in Figure  in the “before” section, where the worker becomes confused with which tool to use. Her immediate reaction was that this worker was being careless, or was not properly trained in the process that he was conducting. Because she was a good manager, she asked the worker why he didn‟t use the properly grounded screwdriver. The worker had explained to her that he thought he was using the correct screwdriver, since the both the grounded screwdriver and un grounded one were on a lanyard and looked exactly the same in every other respect. Employing Poka-yoke, the manager shortened the lanyard for the un grounded screwdriver such that it could not be brought to the workstation that installed the cover on the equipment without cutting the lanyard, as can be seen in the “after” section of Figure. By doing this, she made it virtually impossible to use an ungrounded screwdriver to install the cover in question, and in doing so dramatically increased the quality of the product.
                   As stated before, Poka-yoke is not just for managers and business executives. If instilled properly, every worker and employee of the company should be properly trained in the best methods of mistake proofing, and should provide input on how to eliminate the factor of human error. Mistake proofing is the most effective, and usually the most cost effective, way of increasing quality.
                 The human element is always a variable in every quality equation, but with Poka-yoke, the impact of that variable can be reduced to a mere fraction of a percent of occurrences than if it were never employed.

Prepared By: Md. Tarikul Islam

                        01912885383

                         jonytex073@gmail.com