Drivers of Poka Yoke in Indian Automobile Industry

Indian automobile industry may be viewed as backbone of economy of the country. Need has been felt to explore possibilities of improvement towards 'error free' manufacturing and assembly practices for enhancing profitability by considerably reducing rejections and gaining cost effectiveness. In India, Poka-Yoke has been recognized as a proven approach towards achieving 'error free' environment in manufacturing sector especially in automobile industry. In this paper, an attempt has been made to justify importance of Poka-Yoke in Indian automobile industry and identify important drivers for successful implementation of Poka-Yoke concept. Literature review methodology has been utilized to accomplish the objectives of this research. Identified drivers relevant in Indian automobile industry context are: Quality of Employees; Raw materials; Training; Quality of design; Technologies involved; IT enablement; Culture with idea sharing; Management attitude; Automation and Feedback. Appropriate discussions have helped to conclude this work with directions for future research. This paper may help production engineers and managers to identify errors and further rectify them for gaining competitive advantage over domestic and international automobile market players.