Business Improvement Strategies: Poka-Yoke Case Study for Unilever

This case study examines the implementation of Poka-Yoke, or error proofing, within Unilever, a British-Dutch consumer goods company. The report details the concept of Poka-Yoke, its advantages in the manufacturing industry, and specific techniques used to identify and mitigate errors. The analysis includes an overview of Unilever's operations and identifies potential areas for error proofing, such as incorrect data input, over purchasing, and production delays. The study presents a Poka-Yoke worksheet with proposed solutions for each identified error, utilizing techniques like elimination, replacement, prevention, facilitation, detection, and mitigation. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of error proofing in maintaining product quality and improving business processes, recommending the use of smart machines to guide decision-making and enhance error-free production. The case study highlights the benefits of Poka-Yoke in enhancing productivity, achieving high-quality standards, and improving customer loyalty.

Running head: QUALITY AND BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT
QUALITY AND BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF ASTON MARTIN
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Executive Summary:
The purpose of this project is to showcase the benefits of error proofing or Poka-
Yoke. The project basically describes about error proofing, its benefits on the manufacturing
industry, its techniques. The report mainly focuses on implementation of the Poka-Yoke in
UK Unilever company to prevent and eliminate all the errors from the organization. Lastly
the project concludes about the importance of error proofing in today’s environment.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Company’s Overview.................................................................................................................3
Error Proofing............................................................................................................................5
Advantage of Error Proofing......................................................................................................5
Identified Errors.........................................................................................................................6
Error mitigating process.............................................................................................................7
Final selected Solution...............................................................................................................8
Poka-Yoke Worksheet for Unilever...........................................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Error proofing popularly known as Poka-Yoke was designed by Shigeo Shingo in the
year 1961. Poka-yoke is a mechanism of detecting mistakes and provide solution for the
detected error to mitigate them. The Poka-Yoke deals with the convenience which is not
acceptable to manufacture tiny quantities of the defective products. Poka-Yoke is a technique
that allows an organization to produce 100% perfect products. The Poka-Yoke is basically
used to resolve and prevent the defects during the production process of certain components.
It mainly focuses on the company production without any product defection. The selected
organization for the report is the Unilever. The report mainly focuses on the benefits of Poka-
Yoke for the organization. The report briefly describes about the overview of the
organization, Error proofing, its advantage in the organization, the identified errors from the
error proofing method, final selection of the solution for the organization.
Company’s Overview
Unilever is the British-Dutch company based on consumer goods industry founded on
2 September 1929. It is co-headquartered in United Kingdom, Rotterdam and London. It
manufactures various products like beauty products, personal care products and cleaning
products. It is one of the ancient companies which operates globally and its products are
distributed to around 190 countries. The company has a total revenue of 50.982 billion euro
and the net income of the organization is 9.808 billion euro with 155,000 employees working
in it. It has 400 brands globally delivering products of Refreshments, Home, Personal Care
and Food (Izawa 2015). The Consumers and the employees are the greatest assets of the
company. The organization mainly focuses on customer as well as employee satisfaction. The
company operates many functions which needs to be perfect, any mistake in the business
error can cause a harmful effect on the organization.

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Figure 1: Unilever logo
(Source: Unilever UK & Ireland 2019)

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Error Proofing
Error proofing is a mechanism or an apparatus which helps to remove the defects by
drawing attention to the human error, preventing it or correcting the error as it occurs (Kang,
Kim and Lee 2018). For example:
1. The driver of a car has to press the clutch before applying any gear which prevents the
car from unintended movement.
2. Headlights automatically shuts off whenever left on or the audible alert is triggered.
3. The light on the dashboard appear whenever the doors are open, seat belts are not tied
or the pressure of the tire is low.
Thus, error proofing in an efficient mechanism for Unilever that can prevent the error from
occurring or can detect the error for the organization.
Advantage of Error Proofing
The main advantage of Poka-Yoke is to protect the organization from errors. These
types of errors mainly consist of human error which are caused due to forgetfulness, lack of
understanding, fatigue and insufficient training.
The top benefits of Poka-Yoke that can be gained by Unilever are (Buehlmann and
Fricke 2016):
 Improve Productivity: It removes the error inspection process which decreases the
delay of production. Operators spend less time in investigating the errors as the
relevant one. The interruptions of reworks, repairs and scraps are eliminated (Surange
2015).
 The greatest attainable Standard of Quality: The product quality depends on the
error rate made by the manufacturer of the product. The Poka-Yoke technique reduces

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the error rate or make it nearly zero which helps Unilever to deliver the highest
quality product (Puvanasvaran, Jamibollah and Norazlin 2014).
 Lowest Price quality control: The implementation cost of such type of techniques
involves many devices but the price of quality control is usually less than any other
technical alternatives. They are cheaper than CMM devices (Coordinate Measuring
Machines) (Hocken and Pereira 2016).
 Minimized the inventory: The Poka-Yoke helps Unilever to reduce some inventories
as it is operating the same error in an advanced manner which alternately reduces the
err oral cost of the organization.
 Customer loyalty: Poka-Yoke helps to produce the defect free products for Unilever
which helps them in customer retention by increasing the rate of customer
satisfaction. Moreover, customers pay premium for extraordinary products
(Belekoukias, Garza-Reyes and Kumar 2014).
Identified Errors
The error detected in the Unilever can be categorized as error observed in the quality
of product, error in the production department, error in inspections process and so on
(Sanders, Elangeswaran and Wulfsberg 2016). The common mistakes or error that are
identified are:
 Thinking the business market as strong waste the time for the organization
 Determining that the organization can solve an error by focusing on only one
particular department.
 Focusing to increase the operational cost which will lead to decrease the customer
satisfaction factor for the organization.
 Buying the raw materials in huge quantity that waste the company’s investment cost.

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 Over dependent on the forecast and the market budgets.
 Misinterpretation of the requirements or the specifications for inspecting the products.
 Not utilizing the accurate apparatus
 Utilization of incorrect AQL sample size (Carolino and Barao 2013).
 Missing the statistics of the company’s performance in the overall report.
Error mitigating process
Physical devices can help or substitute the human senses and can develop the cost as
well as reliability for the inspection process of the products of Unilever. Devices like Optical,
electrical, pneumatics, hydraulic or mechanical can be used to protect the organization by
preventing errors. Error proofing consists of six types of error mitigating techniques (Khan et
al. 2014):
 Elimination technique: It involves in eliminating the step which causes the error,
eliminating the non-value included activities and then redesigning the whole process,
for example, replacing the manual data input process with the computerised download
as it involves in an error free out.
 Replacement technique: This technique deals with replacing the step with more
efficient devices or tools which can reduce the occurrence of any type of error in the
process for example replacing the ordinary xerox machine with a developed system
which copy the document as well as collates and staples the copied papers.
 Prevention technique: It deals with changing the product or process that eliminates
the occurrence of the error from the process. It also involves in fitting a physical
barrier to the error to enter in the process, for example, printer cartridges, Plugs for
220V and 110V.

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 Facilitation technique: It deals with facilitating the business errors to mitigate the
errors making the errors simpler and reduces the tendency of making errors in the
process, for example, checklists, warning signs, traffic lane labels and so on.
 Detection technique: It involves in making the errors more obvious to correct them
immediately by the help of various limit switches and sensors for example, warning
given by the computer system when the user has not given all the required
information.
 Mitigation Process: It mainly focuses on mitigating the detected errors which can not
be eliminated, for example, electrical fuses, air bags of the cars and so on.
Final selected Solution
Unilever is one of the leading manufacturing company of UK. It deals with many
processes in producing their products which deals with many errors which affects the product
quality and the processes of the organization negatively. The best solution for the Unilever is
to implement smart machines that guides the business head to take decisions as well as help
the organization to produce an error free product and also helps in maintaining the quality of
the product (Hsu 2017). The smart machines include some codes or operational methodology
to process the input given by the user and it can deliver an output based on the user input.

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Poka-Yoke Worksheet for Unilever
Error Detected Incorrect Data Input to the system
Causes 1. Workplace environment
2. Work rush and pressure
3. Lacking employee satisfaction
Poka-Yoke Solutions
Elimination: Can the operation
be eliminated?
No
Replacement: Can the
operation be replaced?
The process cannot be replaced because ultimately in every
system the input should be given by the humans.
Prevention: Can the operation
be physically prevented?
The error can be prevented by changing the workplace
environment which helps the employee to focus in his or her
error.
Facilitation: Can visual
methods be applied?
The input data should be rechecked by the user to avoid
mistakes.
Detection: How can the
operation be easily detected?
The errors can be detected when the theoretical value does not
match with the practical value
Mitigation: How can the
operation be mitigated?
The errors can be mitigated by recruiting more employee for the
department which will reduce the individual work load and the
company should employ new strategies to increase the rate of
employee satisfaction.

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Error Detected Over purchasing the requirements
Causes 1. Lacking the requirement idea
2. Lack of training
3. Absence of Well-planned schedule for every operations of the business
Poka-Yoke Solutions
Elimination: Can the operation
be eliminated?
The errors can be eliminated by predicting the exact quantity of
the requirements
Replacement: Can the
operation be replaced?
The process can be replaced by smart machines which can
deliver an idea regarding the requirements specification and
quantity.
Prevention: Can the operation
be physically prevented?
A strong secure group should be employed who will investigate
the business requirements and the productivity that can be
gained from that particular requirement
Facilitation: Can visual
methods be applied?
All production should be displayed in a form of graph which
displays the requirement versus the productivity of the business.
Detection: How can the
operation be easily detected?
The errors can be detected when the theoretical value does not
match with the practical value
Mitigation: How can the
operation be mitigated?
The errors can be mitigated by training the employees regarding
the system requirements and specifications. A well-planned
schedule also helps to predict the requirements according to the
production

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Error Detected Delay in Production time
Causes 1. Lacking the requirements of the product
2. Work load
3. Absence of Well-planned schedule for every operations of the
production
Poka-Yoke Solutions
Elimination: Can the operation
be eliminated?
The errors can be eliminated by increasing the production rate.
Replacement: Can the
operation be replaced?
The process can be replaced by smart machines which can
deliver a quick service than humans
Prevention: Can the operation
be physically prevented?
The error can be prevented by establishing some punishable
rules and regulations by the business heads.
Facilitation: Can visual
methods be applied?
A visual alarm should be implemented which will be triggered
if the production rate decreases from the normalized value
which will allow the employees to increase the operating rate.
Detection: How can the
operation be easily detected?
The errors can be detected when the expected value of the
production does not coincide with the time required for the
process.
Mitigation: How can the
operation be mitigated?
The errors can be mitigated by hiring more peoples in the
organization and put them in OJT where they perform some
activities and can gain knowledge to increase the productivity
of the organization.