Mistake Proofing – A Toyota Example?
Mistake proofing or the Pokayoke is one of the very important concepts of lean manufacturing. 
When it comes to Toyota they follow Pokayoke in their manufacturing facilities to reduce the errors and improve the quality and productivity. But how about the finished product, that is the car of course. I noticed something interesting in some of Toyota cars. Before I get there, I would like you to contribute your experiences by adding your comments to this article. I really value them.
When it comes to Toyota they follow Pokayoke in their manufacturing facilities to reduce the errors and improve the quality and productivity. But how about the finished product, that is the car of course. I noticed something interesting in some of Toyota cars. Before I get there, I would like you to contribute your experiences by adding your comments to this article. I really value them.Now back to the observation. Some of the new Toyota cars with auto transmission have their “Hand Break” in the position where the “Clutch” would be in a vehicle with manual transmission. In simple English terms this seems to be little confusing. You cannot have a “Hand” break controlled by “Foot” can you? But that is not something I am deeply worried about this point of time.
I feel there is a high chance of person pressing this pedal on the move. Needles to say the consequences of applying “Hand Break” on the move. I never want to experiment this by myself. But I am ready to learn from others experiences. If you have accidently done this you can share your experiences with the world. This problem is more pronounced when a person experienced in a vehicle with manual transmission is switch to driving this kind of a vehicle. His feet will be looking for the clutch position naturally at least for the first few days. For me there is a high risk of one accidently pressing the “hand break” pedal in this scenario.
When I did a search for similar experiences with other users, I found another very important problem some has faced with the switch of the positions. Some have claimed them driving the vehicle while the hand break is active. If you travel like this for longer distances there is a good chance of facing a malfunctioning in your break system (Again I am not an expert in this area. You can correct me if you know more in this area). For me from this point of view, this is a violation of simplification and standardization. Both of these concepts are in the core of lean manufacturing and TPS.
Share your thoughts with the world. please leave a comment below.
1 comments:
An interesting observation. Here in the U.S. having the emergency (hand) brake to the left of the gas/brake pedal combo on all cars was the norm from the early 60s until the late 80s/early 90s when the mfgs started putting pull hand brakes into the consoles. Before then, many cars had a pull brake mounted horizontally under the steering wheel (I learned to drive on 1960 Corvair with this arrangement).
As the emergency pedal was much smaller than the abnormally large brake pedal on most auto trans cars, there was most likely little chance of a mixup. My first car was a Fiat and the pedal were very small. If there was an emergency brake pedal mounted there, I could see how the mistake could be made, but there was no room for this.
Tradition can be a good thing, but as you point out, it can have disastrous consequences.
Post a Comment
Anything to say. Please feel free to leave your comment below.