Industrial Engineer here,

This is not a buzz word, this is the name of the tool we use. 4/4 companies Ive been at used Poke-Yoke, Poka-Yoke, or Error Proofing interchangeably.

And while I dont own a Japanese car, I can verify the 'common sense' ideas had a resurgence as Toyota applied a process to these principles. It seems nearly every company MUST apply them or they are uncompetitive.

From a plant with 50 employees to a fortune 500 plant, I have not seen these 'misapplied'. Only excellence.

I find outsiders are pessimistic and are unaware that these plants are using SPC and have process engineers looking to optimize daily.