Question

reduced to 2. Boxed-Goods Inc. packages replacement-parts kits. The company packages 10 kinds of kits. Each kit has between four and eight kinds of parts, and the total parts count for a kit is between 20 and 55. As an example, a kit with one part J, nine part Ks, three part Ls, 14 part Ps, and seven part Rs would have a total parts count of 34, and be comprised of five differ- ent kinds of parts. Parts range in size from an average one inch on a side to four inches on a side. Kits are hand-packaged in batches according to customer order. A typical order is for 10,000 kits. The packaging rate is a function of kit size: Roughly 1.5 seconds per part, plus 20 seconds; thus, for example, a 20-piece kit takes 50 seconds The problem facing Boxed-Goods is that occasionally a worker makes a mistake resulting in an incorrect parts count or wrong kind of part in a kit. Suggest at least two pokayoke procedures that might eliminate the parts-count problem, the wrong-part problem, or both at once. State any assumptions about the parts necessary for the procedures to work. Discuss he pros and cons of each procedure in terms of time, cost, quality, and flexibility 2

Answer 1

Poka Yoke procedures for mistake proofing in the given case:

• Awareness: The workers must be aware about the correct parts in the kit. He must be accustomed with the various types of parts, their features, etc. so that any type of wrong-part problem does not occur again.
  • The team can be trained for the parts awareness
  • Advantages:
    • This will help in solving the wrong-part problem
    • The cost of training will not be much
    • This will help in enhancing the overall quality of the packages
  • Disadvantage:
    • The training may take time as the learning rate of the workers may vary
• Root Cause Analysis: The workers can conduct a root cause analysis to identify the primary reasons behind the part-count problem. The 5-Why analysis can be used in this regard.
  • Some of the probable causes can be:
    • Negligence
    • Human Error
    • External error
  • Advantages:
    • It will help in identifying the root cause behind the parts-count problem
    • The overall quality of the packages will get enhanced
  • Disadvantages:
    • The process can be time consuming
    • The process may lack flexibility as it requires certain amount of standardization