"Productivity Enhancement by Reducing Setup Time -SMED: Case Study in the Automobile Factory"

Abstract

The Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) is one important lean tool to reduce waste and improve flexibility in manufacturing processes allowing lot size reduction and manufacturing flow improvements. SMED reduces the non-productive time by streamlining and standardizing the operations for exchange tools, using simple techniques and easy applications. However the process doesn#x2019;t give the specific actions to implement which can result in overlooking improvements. To overcome this, common statistical and industrial engineering tools can be integrated in the SMED approach to improve SMED implementation results. In the present work, experiments were carried out to reduce the setup time and tool change time this are important factors which will take lot of time of the production in an automobile factory. The applicability of the proposed SMED approach was tested for shaping machines changeovers in the automotive industry. The implementation has enabled reduction in setup time, through company's internal resources reorganizations without the need for significant investment.