Shigeo Shingo

Introduction:

Shingo has pioneered the area of Zero Quality Control, by asking similar questions to those asked by Taguchi. He developed the concept called Poka-Yoke (or fool proofing). Shingo put forward that the effort put into tightening tolerances does not necessarily raise costs of the production significantly.

Zero quality control:

Shingo has pioneered the area of Zero Quality Control, by asking similar questions to those asked by Taguchi.
Shingo argues that the effort put into tightening tolerances does not necessarily raise production costs significantly as is widely believed.
Shingo has been teaching concepts of production engineering to many Japanese managers and is still promoting the area of Zero Quality Control by arguing that inspection processes or the use of statistical quality control should be completely eliminated.
He believes that quality should be controlled at the source of the problem not after the problem has manifested itself.
Consequently he recommends that inspection should be incorporated within the process where the problem has been identified and where it should be eliminated.
He considers that Statistical Quality Control (SQC) tends to focus on the effect (subsequent errors related to operators) rather than the cause which is due to process imperfections and abnormalities.
He is the developer of a concept called Poka-Yoke (or fool proofing). Poka-Yoke means that checklists for each operation are provided so that human error is completely eliminated.
It is also similar to the concept of autonomation (jikhoda) based on low-cost automated processes which stop automatically when the required operations are completed or when mistakes/abnormalities develop.

The implementation of Poka Yoke:

1. Control upstream, close to the source of problem by for example incorporating monitoring devices to warn on d e b in materials or abnormalities within the process.

2. Establish control mechanisms to deal with different problems to enable operators to know which problem to cure and how to cure it with minimal disruption to the operating system

3. Toke o step by step approach by taking small strides, simplifying control systems and having economic viability in mind. Efficiency, technological sophistication, available skills, work methods have all got to be carefully studied for effective usage of Poka Yoke.

4. Do not delay improvement by overanalyzing: Although many manufacturers’ main objective is to achieve closeness between design manufacturability, many Poka Yoke ideas can be implemented as soon as the problems have been identified with no cost at all to the companies concerned. Poka Yoke encourages inter-departmental co-operation and is a main vehicle for continuous improvement because it encourages continuous problem-solving activity.