Understanding Jidoka: insights into the awareness and application of autonomation in industrial operations

Manufacturing has undergone continuous transformations driven by technological advancements that have redefined efficiency and competitiveness. Today, Industry 4.0 marks a decisive turning point, shifting from traditional automation to intelligent, interconnected systems. However, while this evolution presents immense potential, it also creates complexity, disrupts existing processes, and heightens operational risks. Many companies struggle to integrate automation effectively, facing issues such as overcomplicated workflows or misalignment between technology and workforce capabilities. Simply implementing new technologies is not enough; without a structured approach, automation can compromise performance rather than improve them (Rosin et al., 2020). This is where Lean Management provides a critical solution, particularly through Jidoka. Originally developed within the Toyota Production System, Jidoka is both a principle and a process that ensures automation enhances, not replaces, human oversight. It allows machines to autonomously detect abnormalities and halt production when defects arise, emphasizing “Automation with a Human Touch” to prevent quality issues from escalating. Unlike conventional automation, which often seeks to remove human intervention entirely, Jidoka ensures that workers remain central to operations (Romero et al., 2019). This human-centric approach becomes even more relevant as industries shift toward Industry 5.0, which focuses on reintegrating human intelligence into digitalized production environments, ensuring that human skills, creativity, and well-being remain fundamental components of industrial progress. This evolution underscores the necessity of harmonizing automation and human expertise, reinforcing Jidoka’s role as a guiding framework for modern manufacturing (Barata & Kayser, 2023). Despite Jidoka’s established role within Lean Manufacturing, its definition and practical application remain ambiguous in both academic literature and industrial practice. Despite extensive research on Jidoka’s principles and its link to automation technologies, a clear, unified definition remains elusive, creating ambiguity that extends beyond academia and challenges industry professionals in its practical implementation. Without a structured and universally accepted understanding of Jidoka, its potential for driving automation strategies remains underutilized and misinterpreted. Additionally, while Jidoka is described as a stepwise process, the methodology for its application lacks depth, particularly regarding the precise role of human operators in executing its different phases. The result is the absence of a comprehensive framework that integrates Jidoka’s organizational, social, and technological dimensions, leaving companies without a clear roadmap for its implementation. This thesis directly addresses these gaps by establishing a unified theoretical foundation for Jidoka, providing a clear definition and structured process for its practical application. It also investigates the real-world awareness and implementation of Jidoka, identifying how companies understand and apply it in industrial operations through the administration and analysis of a comprehensive questionnaire. Finally, it develops a holistic Maturity Model that not only clarifies Jidoka’s role but also defines the right level of automation for companies, integrating technological, social, and procedural perspectives. The provided Maturity Model represents a user-friendly self-assessment tool that companies can use to evaluate their Jidoka maturity level, providing immediate insights and tailored guidance for structured implementation. This research employs a dual methodological approach, integrating a comprehensive literature review and an empirical questionnaire, both conducted to answer Research Questions (RQs): • RQ1: “What is the theoretical framework of Jidoka, and how has the concept evolved in modern industrial practices?” • RQ2: How is Jidoka implemented in operational processes, and what are the key principles and technologies that enable its application? • RQ3: “How does Lean Automation extend Jidoka’s principles, and what role do Industry 4.0 technologies play in defining the right level of automation?” • RQ4: “What is the relationship between humans and automation in Lean systems, and how does Jidoka influence the role of human operators and decision-making?” • RQ5: "What are the benefits and limitations of applying Jidoka in industrial operations? What is the impact of Jidoka on sustainability?" The literature review and questionnaire were designed to jointly address the research questions, each offering a distinct perspective: the former establishes the theoretical foundations of Jidoka, while the latter provides insights into its real-world application. The literature analysis examined 70 relevant sources, mapping Jidoka’s conceptual and technological evolution. A complementary Lean Automation study, focusing specifically on RQ3, analyzed 30 additional documents to explore its intersection with Industry 4.0. The questionnaire, structured as a self-assessment, gathered responses from 40 professionals across 18 industries, ensuring a diverse representation of company sizes and hierarchical roles. Insights from both sources informed the development of the Jidoka Maturity Model (JMM), a structured framework designed to assess, benchmark, and guide organizations in their Jidoka implementation. By aligning its dimensions with literature findings and empirical data, the JMM ensures both theoretical robustness and practical relevance. To reinforce its applicability, the model underwent a validation phase, conducted through an expert interview with a Quality Control Engineer in the Vision Care industry. Regarding RQ1, an analysis of 16 definitions from the literature and 23 provided by questionnaire respondents led to the identification of key pillars that define Jidoka: • The automatic Detection of Abnormalities and the consequent Stoppage of the Process. • The essential and empowered Role of Human Operators as decision-makers and problem-solvers. • The activities of Investigation of Root Causes that go beyond an Immediate Problem Resolution, driving a fundamental enhancement of quality across all stages of the process. Notably, literature lacks a strong focus on root cause analysis, while recent definitions increasingly highlight human-centric automation, aligning with Industry 5.0 trends. Based on these findings, the study proposes a conclusive definition of Jidoka: “Jidoka is a Lean principle that integrates intelligent automation with human oversight by enabling the automatic detection of abnormalities and the immediate stoppage of the process to prevent defects. It emphasizes the empowered role of human operators as decision-makers, ensuring that automation supports rather than replaces human judgment. Beyond immediate issue resolution, Jidoka drives root cause investigation, fostering continuous improvement and enhancing quality across all stages of the process.” Regarding RQ2, this study identifies the five key phases of an effective Jidoka process: Detection of Abnormalities, Stoppage of the Process, Immediate Problem Resolution, Investigation of Root Causes, and Installation of Countermeasures. The integration of Jidoka technologies, such as Andon and Poka-Yoke, is also examined. The questionnaire reveals a significant discrepancy: while 63% of respondents claim to apply Jidoka, only 43% fully implement all phases. Moreover, full adoption is predominantly observed in medium to large enterprises, highlighting the complexity of achieving a cohesive and systematic Jidoka implementation across different organizational contexts. Regarding RQ3, this study refines the integration of Lean Automation and Jidoka, emphasizing the need for low-complexity, high-reliability automation, confirmed by empirical findings on discrepancies in Industry 4.0’s technologies adoption between large and small firms. Following Tortorella et al. (2021), a pathway model is developed to prioritize technologies’ introduction, from foundational Jidoka tools (e.g., Andon, Poka-Yoke) to sensor-based monitoring and interconnected solutions, integrating questionnaire results on the most adopted Industry 4.0 solutions. In conclusion, the research enhances the work of Rosin et al. (2020) by incorporating additional use cases, expanding a framework that connects Industry 4.0 technologies to Jidoka applications. Regarding RQ4, this study highlights the discrepancy between Jidoka’s ideal application and industrial practice, revealing that while 95% of companies allow operators to halt production, only 78% involve them in problem-solving and 70% in RCA. This underscores the need for a structured framework to define operator engagement levels. Additionally, the study reinforces training and upskilling as essential for adaptation to automation, yet only 53% of companies provide training, often infrequently. Lastly, the thesis validates the importance of user-friendly interfaces in enhancing human-machine interaction, aligning theoretical insights with industry needs. Regarding RQ5, the thesis explores Jidoka's impact on key performance metrics—quality, productivity, cost, and delivery time—confirming its positive effect on operational efficiency from both theoretical findings and questionnaire results. It also addresses a gap in the literature regarding Jidoka’s influence on sustainability. Empirical findings show that Jidoka most significantly impacts economic sustainability, while its effect on social sustainability is weaker. The thesis also identifies key implementation challenges, such as insufficient operator training, employee resistance, and integration complexities, highlighting the need for effective Change Management in Jidoka adoption. The implementation of Jidoka varies across companies, requiring a comprehensive framework to assess its application from multiple perspectives. As Jidoka spans both principles and processes, its adoption depends on technological, procedural, human-centric, and organizational factors. Given the complexity and evolving role of automation, there is a need for a maturity model that integrates these dimensions to guide organizations in aligning their Jidoka practices. The JMM proposed in this thesis addresses this need, offering a structured approach to evaluate Jidoka’s implementation, feasibility, and progression across industries. The JMM is designed as a holistic tool to assess the maturity of Jidoka implementation, showing different perspectives that converge in four dimensions: Smart Automation & Digitization, Jidoka Process Application, Human-Centered Work & Decision-Making, and Change Management & Management’s Role. Grounded in both theoretical research and questionnaire findings, the model ensures a comprehensive evaluation of Jidoka’s application across industries. The JMM consists of four interfaces, each corresponding to a dimension, and includes a self-assessment questionnaire that calculates a numerical maturity score on a Likert scale from 1 to 5, reflecting progression from basic to advanced Jidoka levels. Questions are weighted based on their significance to ensure precise alignment with Maturity Levels. These levels, integrated into the interfaces, not only assess the current state but also guide organizations in advancing toward optimal Jidoka implementation. An additional interface aggregates subdimension scores to generate an overall assessment, summarizing results to identify strengths and areas for improvement. The JMM is designed to guide companies in aligning their technological choices, human-centric practices, and organizational strategies to optimize Jidoka implementation. A validation phase is conducted through an interview with a Quality Control Engineer from a large Italian enterprise in the Vision Care industry to assess JMM’s usability and validate the coherence between the status of the company and the maturity levels, with results creating a useful case study for Jidoka’s application. In conclusion, this thesis provides a thorough exploration of Jidoka, integrating both theoretical analysis and practical application. It addresses the ambiguity surrounding Jidoka’s definition, clarifying its dual nature as both a system and a set of guiding principles. One of the key contributions of this work is the development of the JMM to evaluate Jidoka’s application across technological, social, and organizational dimensions. The JMM serves as a practical tool for assessing and guiding Jidoka implementation within companies. Despite these contributions, the thesis identifies several areas for further development. From an academic standpoint, additional research could refine the integration of RCA within Jidoka, as well as explore its connection to sustainability practices. On the practical side, expanding the empirical questionnaire on Jidoka adoption to include SMEs could yield more significant insights. Further, improving the JMM through validation on additional case studies, including SMEs, would offer valuable perspectives and help assess the JMM's validity and reliability in different organizational contexts. Lastly, future work should focus on developing a roadmap tied to the JMM, which would provide clear guidance for organizations striving to achieve optimal Jidoka maturity, outlining specific short-term and long-term steps.

Il Jidoka è uno dei pilastri fondamentali del Lean Management, ma la sua definizione e applicazione sono spesso caratterizzate da ambiguità. Questa ricerca si propone di chiarire il concetto di Jidoka, analizzando la sua definizione nella letteratura accademica e valutando il livello di consapevolezza e applicazione nelle aziende attraverso un'indagine empirica. Lo studio combina un’analisi teorica dettagliata con un’indagine tramite questionario, rivelando che, sebbene il Jidoka sia ampiamente conosciuto, la sua implementazione spesso manca di un approccio strutturato e sequenziale. Un aspetto chiave emerso è la difficoltà di integrare efficacemente tutte le fasi del Jidoka, in particolare l'analisi delle cause profonde (RCA), riducendo così il potenziale impatto positivo sulle prestazioni aziendali. Un altro contributo significativo di questa ricerca riguarda l'integrazione delle tecnologie dell'Industria 4.0 nel contesto del Jidoka. Il lavoro identifica le tecnologie più rilevanti per migliorare ciascuna fase del processo e propone un framework per ridurre la complessità associata alla loro implementazione, in particolare per le piccole e medie imprese (PMI). Il risultato principale di questa ricerca è la creazione di un modello di maturità per valutare il livello di applicazione del Jidoka nelle aziende. Questo strumento pratico consente ai professionisti di identificare punti di forza e aree di miglioramento, promuovendo un'applicazione più efficace e strutturata del Jidoka. Infine, la ricerca suggerisce diverse direzioni per sviluppi futuri, tra cui un maggiore approfondimento sull'analisi delle cause profonde in relazione al Jidoka, il legame tra il Jidoka e la sostenibilità, e l’evoluzione del concetto di Lean Automation nell’Industria 5.0. Inoltre, si evidenzia la necessità di un maggiore coinvolgimento delle PMI nello studio dell’applicazione di Jidoka e di una validazione più ampia del modello di maturità proposto, al fine di fornire un quadro più completo e adattabile alle diverse realtà aziendali.