Back in my MBA days, one of my favorite subjects was operations management. This is because I’ve always been fascinated with ways for improving efficiency. And one of the concepts that was brought up was the Japanese idea of Poka Yoke.

Poka Yoke stands for mistake proofing. Or idiot-proofing, for the more sardonic. Coined by Shigeo Shingo in the 1960s, during Japan’s retooling years, the idea was that in a factory setting, so many things can go wrong in the act of joining one part with another. For instance, a panel might be put on backwards, or the wrong part may end up in an assembly.

Shingo decided, why not idiot-proof the assembly process by making the parts come together in only one, and only one, way? So Poka Yoke is a design philosophy as much as an operations strategy, because it involves a rethinking of how components are designed. Henceforth, parts will fit if and only if they are on the right places. No longer will a worker with a hangover end up putting together a car with the rear bumper on where the front bumper should be.

We don’t really have too many large-scale manufacturing operations in the country (most fall under the category of light industries). But even here, Poka Yoke can be invaluable. Little things such as the design of bag straps, or of furniture parts, or of tool assemblies.

And if anybody can manage to apply Poka Yoke to a service environment, then that will be mindblowing.