Poka-Yoke

Poka-Yoke is a Japanese term that means "mistake-proofing". The aim of Poka-Yoke is to reduce inadvertent actions taken by humans and therefore the number of defects when performing work. Poka-Yoke is a Lean Six Sigma technique.

The graphic below shows an example of Poka-Yoke.  Note that in the top part of the graphic below the positive and negative terminals could be put into the positive and negative slots either correctly or incorrectly.  But in the bottom graphic below you can see that it would be impossible to insert the terminals into the slots due to the difference in size of the terminals and slots. That is an example of Poka-Yoke.

Error prevention or error avoidance or mistake proofing techniques such as this help improve quality by improving processes which help eliminate mistakes. Industrial engineering makes use of this type of technique to improve industrial processes.

Similarly, this sort of technique can be used within computer software applications to improve process quality. When "operator vigilance" is used exclusively, then a higher level of operator training is required.  Further, operator vigilance is not reliable because humans make mistakes.  Anything that can be done to assist a computer software application operator removes some of the burden from software operators.

Quality control techniques such as Poka-Yoke are an example of intelligence amplification and how aggregate work capabilities of human/machine teaming can improve work processes.

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