Shisa Kanko

The safety practice of pointing at important indicators and calling out the status. It was popularized by the Japanese railroad industry, and adopted into many Japanese manufacturing facilities. The technique helps reduce mistakes, errors and safety incidences.
In a factory where this is practiced, fork truck drivers point to the direction they will be turning, and workers who are walking nearby point which direction they are walking, to minimize confusion and risk of accidents.
The point of pointing and calling is to heighten a person’s mental focus at key moments on the job where accidents are likely to occur.
Jon Miller, The Point of Pointing and Calling
A 1994 study by the Railway Technical Research Institute showed that pointing and calling reduced mistakes by almost 85 percent when doing a simple task.
Links
Videos
Additional Resources
- Floor Stickers – Your floors come alive and speak– creativesafetysupply.com
- Forklift Floor Signs– blog.creativesafetysupply.com
- Do Office Desk Treadmills Improve Productivity?– lean-news.com
- Workers Still Ignoring Fall Protection– safetyblognews.com
- Six Sigma and More– blog.5stoday.com
- Human Factors – How Do They Impact Safety?– realsafety.org
- Standardized Work– 5snews.com
- Lack of Sleep? 10 Tips To Keep You Awake– creativesafetypublishing.com