Changeover time reduction through SMED approach

Abstract

In the modern industrial era and environment, with an increase in the competitive globalized market, process innovation and improvement have emerged as one of the most crucial factors for customer satisfaction and sustainability as a whole. To counter increases and fluctuations in demands, organizations need to focus more on finding strategies to make their process flexible and efficient and have a shorter lead time in the production processes. Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) is a lean methodology tool that helps reduce lead and changeover time and makes a valiant effort to cease non-value-added activities. The main aim of SMED implementation is to bring the setup time and changeover time to under 10 minutes. The purpose of this paper is to get into light the application of SMED in a steel processing centre, particularly in the chopper changeover process of hot-rolled coil slitting machine, to systematically analyse and decrease the time needed and thus improve plant availability. After careful implementation, the increase in availability was 4.7%, the average changeover time was reduced by 59%, ultimately resulting in a revenue gain of 44 million INR.