I'm hoping you'll get a number of responses, most better than mine!

Here's what I think is the difference.

Jidoka - 'autonomation' or automation with a human touch. This is the theory of designing machines/processes to run without people 'tied to the machine', meaning they are able to do other things while the machine runs. The term "mistake proofing" is also used in this context.

The best example I can give is Toyoda's original loom - it automatically stopped when a thread broke, not allo