So, I asked a friend how they could have Jidoka in place if there were no electronic devices running on that line. My friend told me that there were just a few robots on the whole site, and they were mostly dedicated to hazardous tasks or high-precision-level activities. The other activities were manual, but that, indeed, Jidoka was in place on that assembly line.
I have to confess that I became a little bit frustrated when he told me that Jidoka was a cord hanging over each workstation, used to turn on a lightboard, the Andon board. These boards were used to show when a workstation needed support .
Actually, I didn't understand my friend. How could those simple cords ensure the quality of the whole process? As an engineer, working in a fastener manufacturing company, I visited many assembly lines, where I saw very sophisticated and automated equipment used to control the processes. Could it be possible that a cord attached to a red ball was the great secret of the famous TPS?
When you look at an iceberg floating in the sea, you can't see what lies underwater. Likewise, at a glance,Icould not see allthe details hidden in that process. After spending some time observing the assembly line activities, I understood why Toyota was so confident in its production system: Those cords were just symbols-symbols of everyone's commitment to quality.
Looking "underwater," I understood that the behavior and the culture were much more important than fancy high-tech equipment. At Toyota's assembly line, everything was inducing the correct activities. On the floor there were indications and borderlines used to show the workflow to the operators. Each workstation had the correct material and tools for its application. There were few opportunities for mistakes. In fact, making mistakes was more difficult than doing the right things .
After all, if those features failed, a new opportunity for improvement was identified-an opportunity for all team members to work and design a better process! That's why the Andon cords were so important, and interrupting the process was an expectation when problems occurred. I was