Changeover time reduction through lean tool "SMED" - A case study from food sector

Abstract

With the expansion of the product portfolio, businesses are faced with the problem of rising costs and downtime associated with changeovers. The classic approach to this issue is based on a system of large production batches, which will minimize the number of changeovers, thus eliminating the costs associated with them. However, customer requirements often do not allow them to produce in large batches, which also entail relatively high storage costs. Therefore, it is necessary to focus attention on their efficient operation when reducing production batches and simultaneously increasing the frequency of changeovers. One way of actively influencing the cost and downtime that occurs during the changeovers is the Single Minute Exchange of Die method. The presented article approximates a case study that deals with the implementation of this method in a specific food industry company. The results obtained show that saving only thirty minutes of the average length of one of the most frequent changeover can save up to CZK 130,000 per year.