20/20 Exclusive >> next article
By James Careless
Jidoka' is a Japanese production management system that eliminates errors as soon as they are detected; resulting in consistent high-quality products, better manufacturing productivity, and improved employee morale/buy-in. Invented by Toyota founder Sakichi Toyoda in 1924 and a central element of the famed Toyota Production System, Jidoka is a common-sense approach to quality control.
As soon as a manufacturing error is detected, the line is stopped and the root cause of the error — where it first appears in the manufacturing process — is found. Once found, the error is either immediately remedied, or fixed as soon as possible while the line is restarted.
Toyota is not the only firm to embrace Jidoka. Saskatchewan's Doepker Industries (an active CME member) has also applied Jidoka to making highway truck trailers for use in agriculture, commercial shipping, construction, forestry, and oil & gas.
This company's longstanding commitment to production excellence led the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce to select Doepker Industries as Saskatchewan's Business of the Year in 1989 and 2001. In 2008, the company was inducted into the Saskatchewan Business Hall of Fame.
"We adopted Jidoka about 10 years ago, both to maximize the productivity of our skilled workforce and to help keep up with customer demands for our trailers," says company VP Evan Doepker. "The ongoing shortage of new skilled workers meant we had to do more with the people we had. More importantly, we wanted to do more for our customers by delivering consistently high-quality products, while streamlining our production process."
"90 per cent of our workforce never meet the customers we actually sell to," adds Keith Guilliame, branch manager of Doepker Industries' Moose Jaw plant. "Jidoka addresses this by making each stage of the production process the customer of the previous stage. This creates a sense of responsibility throughout the entire manufacturing cycle and prevents errors from making their way down the line."
Doepker Industries has had such success with Jidoka, that it recently shared its knowledge with other SMEs. On October 18, 2011, 14 SMEs came to the company's Moose Jaw plant for a CME Innovation Insights' LEARNING Session. The session, which ran from 9 am to 4:30 pm, led the guests through both the theory and application of Jidoka on the plant floor.
"Our guests worked with us to analyze a problem that has been an off-and-on issue for the past 15 years," says Guilliame. "Together, we dug into the issue to find out its root causes, and developed a solution. That solution has eliminated this occasional error from our production cycle; proving once again the power of Jidoka as a manufacturing management approach."
Based on their post-session feedback, the Innovation Insights guests learned a great deal from their visit to Doepker Industries.
"In particular, they were impressed by the power of Jidoka for tackling actual manufacturing issues," says Evan Doepker. "Many of them said they would be trying the same approach when they got back to work." Meanwhile, Doepker Industries gained by hosting the Innovation Insights' LEARNING Session.
"It always helps your own thinking when you have fresh eyes on the issue," Guilliame explains. "And the fact that our guests helped us apply Jidoka right there on the factory floor proved its worth. That's the kind of real-life proof you like to get."
A final piece of good news: Doepker Industries intends to offer another Innovation Insights' LEARNING Session in the future. "Jidoka has been a boon to us," Evan Doepker says. "We are happy to share this highly useful approach with other SMEs when we can."
visit www.innovationinsights.ca
