Simple Every Day Poka-Yoke

Changing lanes while in the car this weekend, I was reminded of some of the poka-yokes that around everyday.
While driving, it is impossible to see if your indicator light comes on when you actually turn it on (kind of like trying to see if you really are sunburned on the back of your neck!).  So, how do we know if it actually is on?  Well, we have two ways, though neither are totally foolproof.  The first is the little light that comes on somewhere on the dashboard, and the second, is that annoying noise "ticker, ticker, ticker" - or however you so translate it!  Most of the time they work to let us know if everyone else can see which way we want to go.  Sometimes they fail, but this is not often so we can get away with such a simple device.

The purpose of a poka-yoke is to prevent someone from making a mistake!  Like most things in the Lean world, it is based on Japanese terminology.  Some people call it mistake-proofing.

Another fairly common poka-yoke is in your kitchen fridge.  In this case, beside preventing a mistake, it also reduces the amount of work we need to do!  What am I talking about?  Why that light that comes on as we open the door!  The mistake in this case would be the light being left on when the fridge door was closed, wasting electricity.  By putting it on a switch that is activated when the pressure on it is relieved, the light turns on when the door is opened and turns off when closed.  This also means that we don't need to flip a switch each time we open the door!

What is your favourite poka-yoke?  Put a comment here or go to our Facebook Page and add it there!  For a link to our Facebook Page, look to the right of the blog!

thanks!