The importance of error proofing

The importance of error proofing Many organizations invest significant sums of money into quality and business improvement projects and events where the primary focus is on repairing problems and errors that have occurred. These issues have often resulted in significant cost and impact to customer satisfaction. Techniques such as error proofing or preventative maintenance regimes are often neglected until it’s too late. When designing processes the opportunity to engineer in error proofing (or Poka Yoke) is too often overlooked – however considering the respective benefits this is somewhat surprising. These techniques don’t have to be complicated – I always love the example of the white ceiling paint that goes on pink but dries white enabling you to see what you’ve painted and what you haven’t – this is a truly excellent example of error proofing – a simple technique that is very effective when painting white surfaces! So when designing your processes – always consider what might go wrong – then go back over your processes to consider what steps you could take to prevent them – you wont catch everything that’s to be sure – mistakes always happen but you’ll hopefully catch more that you’ll miss.