The ability to rapidly change from one product to the next is a key to success for many companies. As customer lead times are continually shortened and product mixes become more complex, the ability to change over rapidly and easily can provide a competitive advantage. Fortunately there are powerful, quick-change techniques that can be applied to any type of operation: from metal to wood, food to plastic, etc.
Set up reduction builds on the principles of the Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) system to dramatically reduce changeover time and production lot sizes, thereby improving flow. The four-step Changeover Improvement Process is used to help companies design no to low cost solutions to reduce changeover time. This allows the business to meet customer demands for high-quality, low-cost products, delivered quickly and without the expense of excess inventory. The systematic process includes analyzing a changeover, then applying quick changeover techniques and strategies to reduce the machine and/or line downtime. Standard procedures will be determined, documented, and used shift-to-shift.
Project Objectives:
- Reduction of inventory
- Reduction in lead-time for the product
- Elimination of waste and non-value-added operations
- Improvement of plant capacity
- Increase in manufacturing flexibility
- Improvement in quality as lot sizes and lead-times shrink
- Improvement in cash flow through reduction of inventory and rapid conversion of raw materials into saleable product
- Increase in competitiveness
