How can you reduce setup times and increase flexibility in your operations?

1 What is lean manufacturing?

Lean manufacturing is a philosophy and a set of methods that aim to eliminate waste, improve quality, and deliver value to customers. Waste is anything that does not add value to the product or service, such as defects, overproduction, inventory, waiting, motion, transportation, and overprocessing. Lean manufacturing focuses on optimizing the flow of materials and information, eliminating bottlenecks, and empowering workers to solve problems and make improvements.

2 How does setup time affect flexibility and performance?

Setup time is a form of waste that can significantly reduce flexibility and performance in manufacturing operations. Flexibility is the ability to quickly respond to customer demands, market conditions, and production requirements, while performance is the measure of success in meeting quality, cost, and delivery goals. Setup time can have a negative impact on both flexibility and performance by reducing the available capacity and utilization of machines and equipment, increasing the lead time and cycle time of production orders, creating inventory and work-in-progress that occupy space and tie up capital, limiting the variety and mix of products that can be produced, as well as increasing the risk of errors, defects, and downtime.

3 How can you measure setup time?

Setup time can be measured by using a stopwatch or a timer to record the start and end time of each setup activity. Setup activities can be classified into two categories: internal and external. Internal setup activities are those that can only be done when the machine or process is stopped, such as changing tools, fixtures, or programs. External setup activities are those that can be done while the machine or process is running, such as preparing materials, tools, or instructions. The goal is to minimize internal setup time and maximize external setup time.

4 How can you reduce internal setup time?

The Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) method is an effective technique for reducing internal setup time. Developed by Shigeo Shingo, a Japanese industrial engineer and lean pioneer, SMED aims to reduce setup time to less than 10 minutes. The method involves four steps: observing and documenting the current setup process and identifying internal and external setup activities; separating the internal and external activities, and shifting as many activities as possible from internal to external; converting the internal setup activities to external with standardized tools, fixtures, programs, and procedures; and streamlining and optimizing the remaining internal setup activities by eliminating waste, simplifying tasks, and improving ergonomics.

5 How can you reduce external setup time?

Reducing external setup time is a goal that requires planning, coordination, and communication among the different functions and departments involved in the production process. To accomplish this, you can implement a pull system that triggers production based on customer demand, use kanban cards or signals to communicate the status of each stage, adopt a cellular layout for machines and processes, apply 5S principles to organize and maintain the workplace and equipment, and train and cross-train workers to perform multiple tasks. Doing this can help you improve your competitiveness, customer satisfaction, and profitability. Lean manufacturing principles and techniques can also be used to eliminate waste, optimize flow, and empower your workers to achieve operational excellence.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?