DIY Changeover Streamline - SMED

Changeovers seem like a necessary evil and just a fraction of your day. Shouldn’t we speed up our production process rather than our setup? Why would we bother?

A machine that earns $150 an hour pays you nothing while it waits for an operator walking to the store room for a tool. Six minutes a trip, five trips a shift, and you lose $75 every shift. Over 240 shifts that is $18,000 a year just in lost production time.

Good News!

You can get most of that back for a fraction of the cost.

Tips:

🚀 Put a second set of tools on a changeover shadow board with wheels. It rolls right up to the operator's right hand. Zero steps to the next wrench.

🚀 Deliver parts and tools to the point of use. The operator runs the machine; someone else runs the errands.

🚀 Make stop gauges and shims for setups you repeat. A bent, broken tape measure is a poor gauge for the fortieth job.

🚀 Add a quick Andon so maintenance sees the problem in seconds. Your maintenance guys are hard to reach. Don't make your machinist go find them.

🚀 Allow the operator to clear the routine "Cache error" or whatever is the typical standstill. If it happens every week, it is part of the job; it should not need a maintenance ticket.

Plan tomorrow's changeover today, and the machine keeps earning while everyone else looks for the tape measure.

Get started!

Turn the needed setup tools and materials into a nice little care package.

- Factory Physicians -

Here to help with this and MORE!

Move a few tasks around so you can better utilize your machine’s uptime.