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Jidoka: what is it, and how to apply it in the industry?

Jidoka: Como aplicar na sua operação?

It is more and more frequent to see the industries adopt the concepts of Lean Manufacturing. At a time of great changes in the sector, it is necessary to find ways to reduce waste and increase productivity. In this context, Jidoka is a method that can bring these benefits to companies.

 

What is Jidoka?

Along with Just in Time, Jidoka is one of the pillars of Lean Manufacturing. The tool originated in the Toyota Production System, which inspired the whole lean philosophy of reducing waste.

Jidoka is a Japanese term that means “automation with a human touch”. The idea is to provide machines and operators with the ability to detect abnormal conditions and stop work instantly.

The idea came up precisely on a self-activated loom machine, where a device inserted that detected normal and abnormal conditions, stopping production in this second case. In this way, no defective products or products of less than ideal quality produced.

However, it is important to note that the concept goes beyond stopping the production line in the event of failures. At any time, an employee can request that production stopped if he perceives a problem. When this happens, all employees visualize the problem and are able to better assimilate its causes and consequences, preventing it from occurring again.

Therefore, Jidoka is directly related to quality management. It was a methodology that had a great impact in the past, since in the beginning of the 20th century it was still very common to have “inspectors” to check the quality of production, generating a higher expenditure.

Today, it continues to have great value and gains even greater importance now, with the emergence of new technologies, since it is possible to exploit this concept to the fullest.

 

 

How does Jidoka work?

In practice, it is very easy to understand Jidoka and apply the concept. We can classify it in four stages:

– Discover an abnormality

– Stop

– Correct the problem immediately

– Investigate and correct the cause of the problem

 

By following these steps continuously, you will always improve the quality of your products. We are talking about a new way of visualizing quality: instead of inspecting it only at the end of the process, we are going to build quality throughout production, preventing any defect from reaching the customer.

 

Benefits of Jidoka

After all, why worry so much about quality? Is it worth it until you stop production? Yes, a lot!

First, this tool supports productive, stable and continuous flows, avoiding defects. In times of increasingly demanding consumers, it is very important to identify and eliminate waste caused by lack of quality.

Naturally, there is an increase in productivity. Not only because the final product has quality assurance, but also because a series of actions are implemented that aim to avoid the recurrence of problems.

That is, it is about learning effectively from mistakes so that they do not happen again.

 

How Novidá can help

Through the indoor geolocation technology developed by Novidá, production stops can be much shorter.

Using smartphones or other types of smart devices, the system locates employees in real time and automatically sends a task order to a qualified employee closest to the problem.

This streamlines the entire operation, and allows better management of the maintenance of the entire business. We applied such a solution at the FCA factory and you can free download this case.

In addition to reducing downtime, Novidá brings reliable data on the history of movement of employees and equipment, which provides valuable insights to increase productivity.

Do you want to know how we can help your business avoid waste? Schedule a conversation with us!

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