A focus on organizational and method aspects of set-up reduction

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Abstract

Flexibility is one key characteristic of a lean production process. In order to be flexible, one needs to be able to switch very quickly from producing a product A to a product B. Set-up reduction is therefore one of the key enablers for Lean Production. The basic method for reducing set-up times - the SMED method - has been published almost 20 years ago by the Japanese IE Shigeo Shingo. Nowadays, a lot of companies are still not familiar with the SMED principles and struggle with long set-up times while considering set-ups as a given. Others think of set-up reduction as a problem that can only be solved with technical modifications. After briefly reviewing the SMED method, we will focus in this presentation on organizational and method aspects of set-up reduction. These play an essential role in the set-up reduction effort. We will show that technical modifications don't guarantee an optimal set-up method. Next we will point out how organizational and method issues can be resolved with common sense and low cost improvements. We will show several real life examples from different set-up reduction projects to illustrate the presented concepts and ideas.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIIE Annual Conference and Exhibition 2004
Pages5521-5555
Publication statusPublished - 2004
Externally publishedYes
EventIIE Annual Conference and Exhibition 2004 - , United States
Duration: 15 May 200419 May 2004

Conference

ConferenceIIE Annual Conference and Exhibition 2004
Country/TerritoryUnited States
Period15/05/0419/05/04

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