Jidoka in the Digital Age

<p>Jidoka-Toyota's principle of automation with a human touch-is one of the two pillars of the Toyota Production System. While Just-in-Time has been widely adopted Jidoka has often remained misunderstood underutilized or oversimplified. This book brings Jidoka to life for today's world of Industry 4.0 smart factories and digital transformation.</p><p>In this <strong>expanded and updated second edition</strong> Mohammed Hamed Ahmed Soliman revisits his original 2020 work and integrates the latest advances that are reshaping quality management: artificial intelligence machine vision predictive maintenance and digital twins. The result is a practical modern guide to building defect-free processes that withstand the challenges of complexity disruption and global competition.</p><p><strong>What you'll learn in this edition:</strong></p><ul><li>The two concepts of Jidoka: separating man from machine and building quality into the process.</li><li>How Toyota balances productivity and quality using andon systems buffers and culture.</li><li>Modern applications of Jidoka with AI IoT and Industry 4.0.</li><li>Case studies from healthcare logistics services and digital industries.</li><li>How to apply tools like FMEA root cause analysis and A3 problem-solving in today's digital environment.</li><li>Lessons from Toyota's recalls and the rising cost of quality in the EV and software-driven era.</li></ul><p><strong>Why this book?</strong></p><ul><li><em>Practical:</em> Clear frameworks checklists and tools you can apply immediately.</li><li><em>Modern:</em> Updated for 2025 realities-AI smart factories and global supply chains.</li><li><em>Universal:</em> Examples across industries from manufacturing to healthcare to software.</li></ul><p>Whether you are a Lean practitioner engineer quality professional or business leader this book will help you understand Jidoka in depth and apply it to create resilient defect-free systems in the digital age.</p><p><strong>About the Author:</strong><br>Mohammed Hamed Ahmed Soliman is a professor consultant and author of over a dozen books on Lean operational excellence and industrial systems. His works-including <em>Lean Maintenance</em> <em>Toyota's Advanced GD³ Method</em> and <em>Heijunka: The Leveling Art of the Japanese Automaker</em>-are used by engineers and leaders worldwide.</p>