Poka-Yoke and How I Proved It Wrong

For those of you not familiar with Poka-Yoke, take a gander at this this explanation. Or, if you don't want to click away from this wonderful blog, I shall explain: "A poka-yoke device is any mechanism that either prevents a mistake from being made or makes the mistake obvious at a glance." Not to be cited for plagiarism, I should properly state that the aforementioned quote was taken from this website . There are many examples of this found in everyday life; the 'you must be this tall' sign at the amusement park, most gas caps are connected so that they aren't left behind, and the best example is... wait, I need to give you background first.

Alright, it was 2006... the year that we returned back to civilization from Guam. OK, that's not fair to Guam, but we were really excited to be back stateside. I was really excited to be back stateside, which meant that I was able to head to MN in July. If you've never been to MN in the summer, you definitely need to go. I am getting off track...

So, I hopped on a plane with the girls (E couldn't come since he was just starting his course load at NPS) and landed in good ol' MSP. My sister was there to pick us up and the next day, we all headed up north to E's parents' lake home. The girls and I were going to spend some time with the Grandparents enjoying Northern MN lake country. Another side note, I have the best inlaws ever... I can spend numerous days with them and feel so completely at home.

I was staying in MN for a couple of weeks, so I had made plans to head back down to the Twin Cities to visit with my friends. When you only get back once per year, you have to pack in as much as you can. E's Aunt was kind enough to loan me her Jeep for the voyage. This is where everything went awry. My wonderful Mother-in-Law starting thinking that an older Jeep wasn't the best thing to send her precious grandchildren on a road trip in. (And by no means am I implying that she was at fault for what was about to happen). She worked her magic on LB (Grandpa) and he agreed that it would be best that I take the brand new Armada down to the Cities. So, AAA number in hand, I was off.

After spending the night at my sister's, I headed over to visit with one of my great girlfriends, 'The Dancer' (a story for another day) and her little boy. On my way back to my sister's house, the 'bitch' (navigation system) got me lost. I was on the phone with my brother-in-law when I got rear-ended by someone. What's worse than getting rear ended in not your own car? Oh believe me... lots... we'll get there. Thankfully, the car that rear-ended me was no match for the Armada. All that was damaged was part of the trailer hitch. I went to Nissan the next day and got an estimate and contacted the lady who was supposed to send my inlaws a check. I wanted to make sure my bases were covered, because man, that sucked. I had to call them and let them know that I was in an accident but everything and everyone was OK.

The next day, I had plans to have dinner with another of my girlfriends. This was a flawlessly laid out plan. We ate dinner and had a great time. After dinner, I bathed the girls and put them into their pajamas and we were off to head back up North. e had a movie to watch and k would surely fall asleep. About an hour into the 3 hour drive, I decided to stop for gas. I pulled into a BP gas station (for those of you that aren't familiar, the BP color is green). e was still awake and KK was asleep, so I figured I should hurry so I wouldn't wake her up. I grabbed the farthest pump handle on the left, which was also the cheapest gas price per gallon. Most of us do the same thing, correct?? Anyway, it didn't fit. I thought that it was weird, so I looked at the gas tank and noticed that there were lots of scrapes around the tank and figured, 'it's a new car, maybe there is something weird with it'. So I proceeded to fill up the tank, while holding the nozzle the entire time. 17 gallons later, we were off.

About 5 miles down the road, when I was ready to turn the cruise on, the car started acting funny. It felt like I was putting the brake on when I was trying to accelerate. What the heck was going on? I pulled over and decided to call my inlaws. I used my best 'nothing's wrong' voice to say, "Everything is OK, I wasn't in an accident, but I just stopped for gas and the car is acting funny". I explain to my father-in-law what was happening and he immediately says, "You didn't put diesel in it did you?" I say, "I don't know, how would I know?"

I pulled out my receipt, and sure enough it said DSL on the receipt... which I proceed to tell him. And then I hear him say, 'She put f*%$ing diesel in it' to my mother-in-law. A proud moment in my life. Worse than messing up for your own parents, is messing up for your inlaws. I thought the world would end. I now knew how E felt everytime that he dissapointed his parents. It was awful.

So, I am stopped on the side of the road, 2 miles away from MN state prison on the phone with AAA and LB trying to figure out how to get me out of this situation. They decided to send a tow truck and the inlaws got out of bed and headed down south to pick us up. Thankfully, the tow truck that came was equipped with 2 young boys that were great entertainement for e while the grandparents were on their long journey.

L&L finally arrived a little after 1 AM and e pushed me towards my father-in-law and said, 'say you're sorry mommy'. Which I did and I don't think I will EVER live this down in my lifetime.

So, the most obvious Poka-Yoke control is that gas nozzles are made so that they do not fit in the wrong tank, but, when you have the right tank, you can put any gas grade into it. Idiot-proof... my a@#!!