Smed setup

The above six steps are sometimes found in slightly different versions in different sources. This is okay. For example, if during the shortening of the internal elements 4 , you find a way to make this step into an external step, by all means do so and then move the step to external 2. I disagree. First decide what your biggest problem is now, and if during the identification, prioritization, and solution seeking of the problem you come back to SMED for this process, then do it.

Otherwise just repeating it is pointless. Of course, there is more potential that can be found in a second round and this would be nice to do. These SMED workshops are often quite powerful. As for the changes, these are often not very expensive. Organizational changes are usually without investment. One SMED workshop I did had as its most popular measure a new plastic shovel for handling granular material, and we got that shovel for free from the supplier of the material.

Another workshop found out that the worker had to go from the third floor to the basement every time a valve needed to be turned on or off. Also, if you manage to reduce changeover time, you should seriously consider not producing more with the available capacity, but performing changeovers more often and getting smaller lot sizes.

This way you can usually multiply the effect of the available time by reducing materials. In sum, SMED can be a very powerful tool to improve your processes. I hope this post was helpful for you. Now go out and improve your industry!

If you like this post, you may want to read my other posts on SMED :. Notify me of new posts by email. Ask me a Question! Glossary English. Set up basics One popular approach to battle waste is to streamline changeovers. Preparation Set up a Team For a good changeover workshop, it is necessary to gave a good team together.

What to Measure Before you start measuring, you should make sure that you get the entire process measured , not just part of it. Inform the Workers Whenever you measure times on the shop floor, or even take video, you should inform the workers and their representatives and get their agreement.

Step 1: Measure Changeover Time Please note that these observations cannot be delegated, as this observation also gives you and the team a crucial understanding of the process necessary for the next steps.

Step 3: Move External Elements to External 4: Shorten Internal Elements After moving the external steps to external, we now shorten the internal steps. Step 5: Shorten External Elements 6: Standardize and Maintain New Procedure The last step is the most difficult one and the most frequently forgotten one.

Practical Tips Before closing this post, here are a few practical tips. This very important for planning as well. If we include the external setup — before the car arrives — and the cleanup afterwards, the pit stop used 17 people for 44 seconds, or 12 minutes and 28 seconds of labor.

Main Steps SMED has applications in construction too and needs to be thought through in a different way. The problem to be addressed is how can one reduce the set-up to complete a particular task. Therefore, construction practitioners need to understand the core of SMED with its techniques in Lean production and adopt them to their work contexts. Good questions to ask are 4 : What can we do before we get to the workplace that will make work at the point of assembly safer, faster, cheaper, etc.?

What can we do while subsequent teams are at the workplace? How can we reduce the time we spend at the workplace? An exemplary setup preparation sheet - setup activities, activity durations, repetitions and activity types Internal or External recorded. Some prime candidates for external activities are retrival parts, tools, materials etc , inspection, cleaning and quality checks.

Using post-its to discuss with your team whether activities are internal or external can help. Figure 2. The team mainly studied and re-configured the longitudinal site layout and material interface, removed site obstructions with better coordination and preparation, prepositioned components and re-designed a HIAB truck with a trailer to carry and install materials simultaneously for quick attach see images below 8 :.

Figure 3. Or start getting things in order for the next job before the current one finishes. Load up that cart with a job kit for the next job and assemble all the setup sheets and other documentation needed for that next job.

For example, by use of stops and fixturing. Find ways to eliminate trial runs and any kind of trial and error adjustment. Another type of adjustment is the need to constantly inspect for tolerances and adjust via wear offsets.

This can be automated using in-process probing. For example, to minimize the tools that are needed or that are specialized between jobs. Kaizen also goes well with SMED. Reductions in walking time, kitting of jobs so that a single trolley can be quickly assembled and rolled over to set up the machine, proper documentation, good work cell layout, and similar factors all go to reducing the human costs. Good checklists and setup sheets will save the operator time during job changeover.

The world of fixtures, workholding, and a great many of the accessories available for CNC machines are focused on time and waste savings that are useful for SMED. Fixtures that use pins, cams, quick releases, pneumatics, and the like to replace tighting nuts and bolts are a great example.

Another way to approach it would be the use of pneumatic socket drivers where bolts are required. Usually, having a well situated hand knob, lever, or toggle clamp will do the job well and inexpensively. The next step up is the ability to swap the workholding between jobs quickly. Solutions include:. Known work offsets can then be plugged in and the new job is ready to go in 10 minutes or less.

Think about automation initiatives in this way:. For example, install of an expensive robot to load a mill, converting fixtures and vises to pneumatic operation may save a lot of time at much lower costs. The next installment in our Lean Manufacturing Principles Series is about Kanban, which is a simple system for doing pull-based scheduling on the Shop Floor.

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