Jidoka
Jidoka — 'autonomation', or automation with a human touch — gives machines and operators the ability to detect an abnormality and stop immediately, so defects are not passed downstream. It builds quality into the process rather than inspecting it in afterwards.
One of the two pillars of the Toyota Production System (with just-in-time), jidoka means a process halts the moment something goes wrong, surfaces the problem (often via andon), and prevents bad output continuing. By stopping at the source, it forces root-cause fixes, frees operators from watching machines, and embeds quality into production — the same principle behind modern automated quality and condition monitoring.
Related terms
Lean Manufacturing · Andon · Poka-Yoke (Mistake-Proofing) · Predictive Quality