Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

Poka – Yoke Mistake Proof your Marketing

By Business901

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

MARKETING IS A BIG MISTAKE

If you are a successful company, why would you need marketing? What makes you a complete success in your customer’s eyes? If you did all this, would you need marketing? Some examples: 1.Sales Price = Always sell at a price customers are willing to pay. 2.Diversity = Make only what customers need. 3.Quality = Make products that will satisfy your customers, always! 4.Delivery = Deliver products at the exact time a customer needs them. 5.Cost = Produce at the lowest possible cost and less than item 1.

If you are doing this, your marketing budget may be able to be virtually eliminated. Your marketing, if needed would be customer-centric in a fact finding mode that would give you constant feedback. This would enable you to keep improving or developing new products in your pipeline. Of course, in a mistake free organization your improved/new products would be ready the day the customer needed them.

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

Henry Ford said: “If you would have asked the customer, he would have just wanted a faster horse!” As a company we cannot totally rely on our customer feedback. Many times, they will not have the capacity to know the latest technology and trends effecting the products or services that they use. What they do know is their business needs and requirements. So concentrating on where his business is going is an important function of marketing.

But can we have mistake-free marketing? I think there is 2-ways to discuss mistake-free marketing: The strategic side and the tactical side. The strategic side would be your marketing messages and the tactical side, producing these messages. I will spend time on the strategic side deciding; how to facilitate that interaction with the customer and also discuss the tactical side; how to implement a mistake-free marketing system.

The tool I will use to achieve this is defined by the Lean term, Poka-Yoke. Poka-Yoke emphasizes the detection and correction of mistakes. It puts special attention on the one constant threat to any process: human error. Careful attention is also placed on every activity in your process and instantaneous feedback tools are utilized as the key to successful implementation.

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

ARE YOU A CUSTOMER-DRIVEN MARKETING COMPANY?

Are you creating inbound marketing materials and strategies that are customer centric? Or, are you a company that creates outbound material that are forced on customers and as a result driven from the inside out. The new wave of marketing is becoming not only more inbound, but the stakes are getting raised higher and higher to gain a response. In a competitive market, we can’t wait on a customer to find us though can we? Are you getting the business with your present marketing tactics? I encourage you to initiate customer driven marketing, NOW! That is the essence of the diagram that I have used to show you the different stages. The technology is here and affordable. A good example is Amazon. Every time you click, you create your own content. You reinforce it and tweak on every visit. They are also creating an environment with the Kindle that may determine how we use the Internet in the not too distant future. They could even possibly win the search engine battle over Google or Microsoft in providing online content. A complete wireless Internet supports that theory and they are ahead of the competition. It may very well be the Internet of the future.

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

I approach this subject because as we install a component of Lean, Poka-Yoke into your company, we are raising the stakes and not accepting general improvement. We are looking initially for breakthrough strategies and after that continuous improvement. So ask yourself, and from the strategic side, are you customer driven?

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

START FIXING MARKETING MISTAKES WITH A PROCESS

On the previous blog post, I discussed the Strategic side of the Lean Principle, Poka-Yoke. In the tactical side, we get away from the big picture side of the equation and start looking at some of the actual tools we will use to create Poka-Yoke process. I created a flow chart to guide us through the process but the chart was not meant to have a direct correlation flowing horizontally. We may find all the common errors in just one of the Process areas discussed. In later blog posts, I hope to take the Lead Generation tactics of advertising, public relations and referrals through a Poka-Yoke process. However, we need to acquire some general knowledge of the subject. First, we must identify our processes that we use in developing for example an Advertising campaign, Trade Show or any type or of Event Launch. Each would require a different process flow diagram. In Six Sigma, this is the Define stage of the project. We would develop a team charter, process flow diagram and a few more items but our goal will be going after low hanging fruit. The goal is to simplify and mistake proof the process, keeping it simple is the key!

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

Secondly, we will examine areas that we may find errors in our process that would improve items such as delivery, taking on a job we may not qualify for and/or not have the proper equipment. In our post, we will break down these errors defining them further to see if we can control them. Thirdly, we must get to the root of the problem to ensure that the improvement method we choose can be applied as a real solution, and not just a bandage. We typically use a fishbone diagram, to help prompt us to ask why at least five times. This will enable us to discover the root of the problem. Only then ask, how do we fix it and put the solution into practice Only at the time, do we determine how to create the basic improvements for our desired outcomes and create a roadmap to start and more importantly maintain the value stream created.

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

CAN YOUR MARKETING MISTAKES BE ELIMINATED?

These are two basic paths that we could assume in our path to perfection. You can look at the fact that people will always make mistakes and therefore we must accept defects. We set up final inspection or checklist or just wait and see if the customer notices it. Or we can take the attitude that all mistakes can be eliminated by proper training and prevention. I prefer the latter. Mistakes happen for many reasons, but almost all can be prevented if we take the time to identify when and why they happen. Let’s take the time to define some terms before we start. A mini-project charter per say. Mistakes(errors) are any non-conformity(deviation) passed to the next stage or worse yet, does not meet the customers expectation. A defect is the result of these mistakes. Many companies will wait for the final product to sample for mistakes and a certain percentage of rejects is acceptable. Other will do 100% inspection. But from a marketing standpoint, use direct mail as an example, how do you do that? The production of the direct mail piece itself may be measurable but the can you Poka-yoke the response? What response rate is acceptable or what you would call defective or broken? We will tackle this conversation in future posts but for now, let’s find out some suggestions on how to error proof a process.

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

The basic functions of Poka-yoke control are stop doing it(shutdown), control(make adjustments) and warning(red flags occurring). Maybe, more important, is the two terms, prediction and Detection. Prediction states that something is about to occur and Detection is something has occurred. The closer the source to the mistake that it is discovered the less costly is the problem. The whole point of Poka-yoke is to instill the process detection, this will drive better feedback which generates the proper actions. This is a continuous process that once installed continues on and on.

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

1. Frequent changes to a job 2. Complex processes 3. Lack of Standards 4. Lack of measurement systems 5. Lack of training

6. Long cycle times 7. Infrequent jobs 8. High output 9. Environmental conditions 10. Attitude ( Motivation)

Common Red Flag Conditions: These are quick places to look to assist you in finding the reason for the defect. You could maybe determine these to be your first “WHY” in your search for the root cause. The only thing I would warn you is not to jump to a conclusion. Insert a few these into your fishbone and go through the steps. Use at a brainstorming session to get those ideas flowing.

Handling Mistakes: Use this diagram as a reminder on what not to do with a mistake.

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

Easy to do High Payoff

Hard to do High Payoff

Easy to do Low Payoff

Hard to do Low Payoff

Grab the Low

Hanging Fruit

The Fishbone Diagram is a graphical compilation used to identify and explore the possible causes which lead to a given mistake. The ultimate aim is to work down through the causes to identify basic root causes of a problem. Related Blog Post.

Organize your mistakes(errors) and group them according to the matrix. This will simplify the selection process on what mistake to tackle first.

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

Finishing the Poka-Yoke Job We have found the root cause but how do we correct it? The correction may seem easy at this point but how do we know it is just not a band-aid. My preference is to go back to the Fishbone diagram and use the same method we use in discovering the root cause to discover the best solution. I also use the matrix to visualize and confirm the final choice. One of the important things you now must do is to consider the control device you will use to monitor the progress. In manufacturing we consider limit switches, stop/no go gauges. However, in service industries it can be much more difficult. In event planning though it could be something like an ineffective advertisement. You could build into it milestones that if it not achieved that certain positive or negative consequences occur.

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

Another example may be in developing advertisement copy; you may have certain acceptance criteria that are built into the process. It could be time sensitive, for example. You must remember even what seems like the best solution, if is uncontrollable will not lead to good results. You may want to consider another alternative and a result is that the perceived best action may change or become clearer as you improve.

The method 1. Start with the Root Cause of the mistake. Brainstorm ways to eliminate the

mistake(Fishbone). 2. Note on each idea how you will handle the mistake: Don’t Accept, Don’t

Make, Don’t Pass On. 3. Consider the cost and time of solving the problem 4. Place in matrix on Easy/Hard to do, Big/Low Payoff. 5. Review the controls to use. 6. Make your choice. 7. Proceed and monitor.

Business901 Product Marketing Lean Marketing

Joseph T. Dager

Ph: 260-438-0411

Fax: 260-818-2022

Email: jtdager@business901.com

Web/Blog: http://www.business901.com

Twitter: @business901