Published Paper Details:

Indian cement plants operate complex, high-temperature, high-throughput, and highly interdependent processes where small human or system errors can escalate into costly quality defects, safety incidents, and unplanned downtime. Poka-Yoke (mistake-proofing) offers a low-cost, high-reliability strategy to prevent, detect, or mitigate errors at their source by design. This paper maps an error taxonomy specific to cement operations, proposes a lean-safety integrated Poka-Yoke framework, evaluates Poka-Yoke interventions across departments and rollout roadmap for Indian plants. The research methodology combines quantitative analysis of production data, qualitative interviews with plant personnel, and direct observation of manufacturing processes. Key findings indicate that systematic implementation of Poka Yoke techniques resulted in a reduction in quality defects, decrease in material wastage, and improvement in overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). The study provides practical insights for cement manufacturers seeking to implement error prevention strategies and contributes to the broader understanding of lean manufacturing applications in process industries.