Barry Callebaut, the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, has been at the forefront of lean manufacturing practices for several years. The company's commitment to continuous improvement has been recognized with numerous accolades, including winning first place at last year’s Lean Diamonds Awards—an annual award presented by the Lean Analytics Association and Cranfield University to companies who have demonstrated exceptional performance in lean manufacturing practices.

Barry Callebaut's lean journey has been driven by their Go4Zero program—a company-wide initiative focused on achieving zero accidents, defects, waste, and losses. The basic ways of working behind Go4Zero remain simple, emphasizing Gemba Walks, 5S, Team Boards, Root Cause Problem-Solving, and other lean principles using Gemba-centric tools and technologies. As a part of this program, the company has implemented various systems to support their lean goals, including the Connected Worker app, Poka.

Poka has become a foundational element in Barry Callebaut's lean manufacturing strategy, allowing factory workers to capture, leverage, and share critical information in real-time. The integration of Poka has been carefully achieved through a structured change management approach, ensuring that employees understand and are committed to using the tool effectively.

How Poka is Used in Support of Go4Zero

Barry Callebaut has implemented the Go4Zero strategy to maintain their position as market leader. Let's dive into how Barry Callebaut leverages the Poka app to support Go4Zero.

Diagram outlining Poka’s deployment at 3 Brazilian Barry Callebaut sites. Poka features used as part of their operator-centric strategy include the Factory Feed, Digital Work Instructions, Forms and Skills Management. The app is also an important part of their problem-solving process.

Collaboration and Problem-Solving

Barry Callebaut encourages collaboration between colleagues at different levels and across functions to develop sustainable solutions and standards. The 8S process is used for complex problem-solving, while daily routines and Root Cause Problem Solving (RCPS) are managed through 24-Hour Team Boards and Poka’s Issues Management function. Poka connects leaders to the Gemba, while providing frontline workers with news feeds, problem-solving tools, standard work instructions, and skills training. Continued communication between employees remains a critical component of the company's Lean principles, ensuring a strong alignment and support of any improvement projects uncovered by this process.

The problem-solving landscape at Barry Callebaut. Operational staff are equipped to use Gemba and Root Cause Problem Solving through 24-Hour Team Boards and Poka’s Issues Management function.

Gemba Walks and Teamboards

Barry Callebaut utilizes shift and daily review Gemba Walks, as well as targeted Walks aimed at specific Go4Zero initiatives.

Barry Callebaut introduced 24-Hour Team Boards in the early phase of their Lean pilots. These are strictly-timed meetings held in various upstream and downstream zones as part of the Gemba Walk. Team Boards are owned by the operator, with management there only to support the day-to-day problem-solving. The 24-Hour Team Boards were designed to allow flexibility to reflect operator needs, with KPIs chosen by operators to best capture performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated technology adoption at Barry Callebaut, maintaining the all-important connection with the Gemba. Team Boards continued, augmented with the use of Poka on tablets. Since implementing Gemba Walks and Teamboards in Brazil, Barry Callebaut has consistently registered between 8-15% improvement on their primary operation and supply chain KPIs year over year.

Safety is another top priority, with over 11,000 observations created during Gemba Walks in 2021. Team Board meetings begin with a safety talk including near misses and Gemba observations, which is followed by outlining follow-up actions to be carried out with management's support. Observations are registered using Poka’s digital forms and checklists feature, and additional information can be shared via news posts, requests for assistance made using Issues, and safety standards updated when required in living digital work instructions. Additionally, over 6,500 safety training events were created in 2021, with Poka supporting the creation of work instructions to further develop employees' skills and competencies.

5S

Barry Callebaut applies a systematic 5S approach to standardize, maintain, and improve their working environment, impacting Safety, Quality, Service, and Environment. 5S is the engine behind their standards, and is applied consistently with the help of 5S audits conducted using Poka’s digital forms and checklist feature.

Training and Onboarding

Poka makes it easier for operators at Barry Callebaut to create training content - building a centralized, easy-to-access database of digital work instructions. Multifunctional subject matter experts approve the standards and validate content before publishing. Training and onboarding efficiency has improved significantly, cutting down training creation and administration by 75% and decreasing onboarding time by 50%.

Sign Up Your Plant Today for the Lean Diamonds Awards

Barry Callebaut at the Lean Diamond Awards ceremony 2022.

For Barry Callebaut, this win was a long time coming. A “7-year progression” of implementing lean strategies and tools, backed by impressive results.

“[I’m] very proud of team Barry Callebaut Brazil for showcasing our lean journey since 2015 and scooping the Lean Diamonds Award last night,” John Schouten, Global Operational Excellence at Barry Callebaut, wrote on LinkedIn. “Congratulations to all the other finalists, the passion for Lean shone through [at the awards ceremony] and we have taken away a lot of inspiration.”

John captures the true purpose of the Lean Diamonds Awards in that statement. The goal is to identify, capture and diffuse the most transformative Lean journeys, and so inspire other organizations. Barry Callebaut’s case study, along with other finalists like Bridgestone, Jaguar and Rolls Royce Aerospace, were included in the 2022 book Lean Thinking Evolution: Getting Prepared for the Digital Era to provide insights and best practices so organizations can learn and improve their lean practices, becoming more competitive.

Flavio Luiz Fachinello, Operational Excellence Manager South America and Mexico, helped put together his company’s case study for the book. “The main challenge was to select the content, considering the rich material available to show the Brazilian team success,” he wrote. It was also a great way to highlight his team’s achievements and celebrate his 19-year career at Barry Callebaut.

This year, Poka is proud to be sponsoring the 2023 Lean Diamonds Awards, which recognizes excellence in Lean manufacturing practices. We encourage all manufacturers implementing Lean practices to apply for these awards and share their success stories with the world in this year’s book, which will again feature case studies from selected finalists. The applications are open until May 31, so there is still time to submit your entry.

We look forward to seeing the fantastic work that manufacturers have done and wish all applicants the best of luck!

Barry Callebaut Named Lean Diamonds Award Winner