BENEFITS FROM JIDOKA

One of Edward Deming's 14 points is this: "Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by creating quality into the product in the first place".

In-station quality is much more effective and less costly than inspecting and repairing quality problem after the fact.

“Jidoka” helps to detect a problem earlier, preventing the passing of defects and helping identify and correct problem areas using localization and isolation.
Since the defects are stopped automatically, full time inspectors become unnecessary. Multi-machine handling and dramatic productivity increases are made possible.

Some benefits from “jidoka” are:

• to avoid the spread of bad practices
• no defective products produced
• to add human judgment to automated equipment
• to minimize poor quality
• to make the process more dependable
• to have problems clearly identified so that Kaizen can be accomplished
• to give the employee responsibility and authority to stop production
• to prevent equipment breakdown
• high-quality products and improvement in productivity.

In Toyota “jidoka” means making defect-free processes by continually strengthening:

• process capability
• containment (defects are quickly identified and contained in the zone)
• Feedback (so that quick countermeasures can be taken)

Once the line is stopped a supervisor or person designated to help correct problems give immediate attention to the problem the worker or machine has discovered. To complete Jidoka, not only is the defect corrected in the product where discovered, but the process is evaluated and changed to remove the possibility of making the same mistake again.