Jidoka

See also Autonomation

Autonomation describes a feature of machine design to effect the principle of "Jidoka" used in the Toyota Production System. Autonomation, or Jidoka, may also be described as "intelligent automation'" or "automation with a human touch."

Autonomation transfers a level of human intelligence to automated machinery. Machines thus detect even a single defective part and immediately stop while asking for help. The concept was pioneered by Sakichi Toyoda at the turn of the twentieth century. He invented automatic looms that stopped instantly when any thread broke. This permitted one operator to oversee many machines without risk of producing large amounts of defective cloth. Taiichi Ohno considered Jidoka (Autonomation is one variant) as one of the two pillars of the Toyota Production System. See also jidoka.

The purpose of autonomation is the rapid or immediate address, identification and correction of mistakes that occur in a process. For instance rather than waiting until the end of a production line to inspect a finished product, autonomation may be imployed at early steps in the process to reduce the amount of work that is added to a defective product. A worker who is self-inspecting their own work, or source-inspecting the work produced immediately before their work station is encouraged to stop the line when a defect is found. This detection is the first step in Jidoka. A machine performing the same defect detection process is engaged in autonomation.

Once the line is stopped a supervisor or person designated to help correct problems give immediate attention to the problem the worker or machine has discovered. To complete Jidoka, not only is the defect corrected in the product where discovered, but the process is evaluated and changed to remove the possibility of making the same mistake again. This "mistake-proofing" of the production line is called Poka Yoke.

Taiichi Ohno and Sakichi Toyoda, originators of Lean philosophy and practices in the manufacturing of textiles, machinery and automobiles considered Poka Yoke & Jidoka (mistake-proofing and autonomation) the pillars upon which Lean is built.