Lean manufacturing makes use of various lean tools for improvement in production effectiveness and efficiency. The main goal of such an approach is to get the maximum output by making use of less time, less effort and fewer resources, that is, to create a Lean process. Continual improvement is an important part of every operation and the same can be achieved by applying the lean tools. Some of the commonly used Lean tools in manufacturing are as follows:

  1. Kaizen
  2. Poka-Yoke
  3. Jidoka
  4. Gemba
  5. Kanban
  6. Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED)
  7. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
  8. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

In continuation our series, this article discuss about Jidoka in detail:

JIDOKA

Jidoka also known as automation is the principle which provides the operators and machines the ability to identify any aberrant condition and to stop work immediately when the problem first occurs. Quality can be built at each process of the operation with Jidoka contributing to more efficient and improved work by eliminating the root cause of defects. The good parts can be distinguished from the bad parts even without being continuously monitored by the operator which in turn can lead to increased productivity gains as the same operator can operate several machines at a time. Jidoka helps in detecting inefficiencies, slowdowns, breakdowns and other abnormalities in a process. Managers approval is not required for stopping the production as this is considered as a part of the organizational culture and is expected to be done. It helps to deliver good quality and defect free product to the customers. There are 4 principles on which Jidoka relies which forms the foundation for achieving continual improvement of the process, described as follows:

  1. Detection of abnormality
  2. Stop the process
  3. Fixing the problem
  4. Investigation and solving the root cause

Andon is an important part for the visual management of the Jidoka system. It is a light which is used as an alarm to inform workers about a problem in the production process. It is a color-coded light system which is used to indicate the status of the workstation.

Jidoka system

Jidoka speeds up the root cause investigation and thus prevents the problems to be pushed into the final product. This saves the amount of tasks to be performed for rework, inspection time, labour time and effort and also leads to early delivery of goods. It is mainly aimed at building quality into a product resulting in greater productivity and processing capacity.