Professional Documents
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What is a Changeover?
Formally defined in manufacturing terms, a
changeover is simply the amount of time taken
to change a piece of equipment from
producing the last good piece of a production
lot to the first good piece of the next
production lot.
Now if you work in a hospital or office area
or any other non manufacturing environment
simply replace the words last good piece with
last good unit of one type of work.
One of the best ways to learn about quick changeover is to watch a pit crew operate at a
Formula One or NASCAR race. It goes without saying that the ability to get the car back
onto the track as quickly as possible can mean the difference between winning and losing
and so it is with producers of any product or service. We too need to be able to get our
equipment, or value added processes, up and running as quickly as possible.
What is SMED?
SMED, which stands for single minute exchange of dies, is a system
focused on dramatically reducing the time it takes to perform
changeovers or setups as theyre often called.
SMED was actually developed ~ 50 years ago by a man named Shigeo
Shingo who was working for the Toyota Motor Company as a
consultant. In those days Toyota needed to reduce inventory of
automobile stampings and began looking for ways to perform
changeovers in a more efficient manner.
As it turns out Shingo was able to collaborate with Toyota engineers on a method that
reduced a 4 hour changeover on a 1000 ton press to less than 3 minutes. Yes, that right 4
hours to 3 minutes! This example as well as an excellent description of the overall SMED
process was documented in the book A revolution in manufacturing: The SMED System. So
it goes without saying if you dont already own this book I highly encourage you to pick a
copy up.
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