Autonomation

The Japanese term Jidoka (自 働 化Japanese, German correspondence: Autonomation for autonomous automation ) means an " intelligent automation " or " automation with a human touch ."

History

The Jidoka principle is in addition to the just- in-time principle, the second pillar of the Toyota Production System. The basic idea is based on the invention of an automatic loom reacting the Japanese founder of the Toyota Motor Company Sakichi Toyoda ( 1867-1930 ). If one of the warp and weft threads tore, stopped this loom by means of a built-in machine part. So no more defective products were produced.

Objectives

The goal is a wholly-owned control of the manufactured materials nor during the production process and not as an afterthought. Stopping the process in case of errors allows an intensive search for causes of the problems encountered and has short sometimes significant productivity losses result, but it pays in the long term by high reliability. Jidoka is a cost-effective intermediate step on the way to the ideal of complete automation, the machine detected error should eliminate on your own.

Expiration

For the machine components and functions ( such as sensors ) implemented, which will allow it to detect deviations from normal operation independently and auszuregeln in given areas. In case of deviations outside the control options the machine can stop their processing method and the employees spend warnings. This allows the staff to focus on the inputs and such incidents. The production of defective products is avoided, which contributes to quality improvement. Following the example of Toyota are now provided by many car manufacturers in the assembly line working zones ( " Bating - zone" ), in which an error can be corrected immediately. This later rework and the turbulence of production sequence is avoided.