Work · PM · TPM
Poka-Yoke
A recurring problem on a team of nine: engineers falling behind and making errors. The usual answer is to manage them out. I fixed the person and the process separately, and both stuck.
- Result
- Retained, not replaced
- Role
- Technical Programme Manager, Vodafone (via Interactive Management Solutions)
- When
- 2019–present
The pattern
Managing a team of nine, this came up more than once: an engineer falling behind, making errors, and the easy answer being to quietly manage them out.
The person and the process, separately
On the person: training, and pairing them with someone already expert in the work, so they learned from doing it alongside someone rather than from a document.
On the process: I checked all of their output for two weeks to confirm real progress rather than assuming it, and rewrote the instructions step by step so a step couldn’t simply be missed. That’s poka-yoke: mistake-proofing the process instead of asking someone to be perfect.
Result
- They came up to standard and stayed. Nobody on this team was managed out. Every engineer who went through this is still on the team today.
- The instructions written for this became the standard reference for the work going forward.
Fix the person and fix the process, as two separate problems. Most managers only do the first.