Poka yoke, a Japanese term used in the Toyota Production System meaning mistake-proofing or error-proofing, applies to the role discrete sensors now play in quality control, says Tom Rosenberg, ...

Since the first industrial revolution, improving productivity has been a major goal for most manufacturing operations. Today, in the middle of the fourth industrial revolution, that hasn’t changed.

redress when they receive the wrong medication or even the wrong operation. Medical mistakes kill up to 120,000 people annually; it doesn’t matter how good the doctors are, because the system in which ...