Word.ws English Dictionary

poka-yoke

poka-yoke noun: a methodology of using low-cost techniques to error-proof production processes.

Noun

poka-yoke (uncountable)

  1. A methodology of using low-cost techniques to error-proof production processes.
    • Poka yoke emphasizes 100% inspections upstream for possible causes of defects, as well as rapid feedback and follow-up actions.2007, Bijay K. Jayaswal, Peter C. Patton, Design for Trustworthy Software […] , Prentice-Hall
    • One of the central concepts of Lean practice in Toyota today is something called poka-yoke (fool-proofing).[2010, James Coplien, Gertrud Bjørnvig, “What the System Is, Part 2: Coding It Up”, in Lean Architecture for Agile Software Development, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 133

Origin of poka-yoke

Borrowed from Japanese ポカヨケ (poka yoke), from ポカ (poka, “a blunder”) + よける (yokeru, “to dodge, avoid”).

Questions about poka-yoke

What does poka-yoke mean?
Poka-yoke means a methodology of using low-cost techniques to error-proof production processes.
What part of speech is poka-yoke?
Poka-yoke is a noun.

Words near poka-yoke in the dictionary

  1. pok kai
  2. Pok'ot'u
  3. pok-a-tok
  4. pok-ta-pok
  5. poka
  6. poka-yoke
  7. pokable
  8. pokal
  9. pokals
  10. Pokanoket
  11. Pokanokets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: poka-yoke (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “poka-yoke.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/poka-yoke. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.