Setup Time Reduction Research Articles

The validation of productivity on the changeover activity at the automotive stamping press line by comparing the embedded SMED frame-work versus SMED approach: A witness simulation case study

Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) is a popular method used to optimize the die change processing time. The purpose of this study is to identify on how to reduce set-up time by using Embedded SMED in automotive stamping press line. An actual case study at an automotive company XYZ in Malaysia was conducted based on parts supply issues. The observations, assessments and standard manufacturing practices were carried out during the study. WITNESS simulation software was used to identify the critical processes and also enable the validation of actual output based on the production. The result of the particular press line (combination of 800 Tons and 500 Tons machines) which produced 6 parts in 1-shift operations with small lot size output has been identified and improved. The significant improvement based on the Embedded SMED compared to conventional SMED approach showed a decreasing change-over time from an average of 12.51 minutes to 9.41 minutes (effectively a single-digit minute) resulting in circa 62% reduction.

Robotics Inspired Renewable Energy Developments: Prospective Opportunities and Challenges

The domain of Robotics is a good partner of renewable energy and is becoming critical to the sustainability and survival of the energy industry. The multi-disciplinary nature of robots offers precision, repeatability, reliability, productivity and intelligence, thus rendering their services in diversified tasks ranging from manufacturing, assembling, and installation to inspection and maintenance of renewable resources. This paper explores applications of real robots in four feasible renewable energy domains; solar, wind, hydro, and biological setups. In each case, existing state-of-the-art innovative robotic systems are investigated that have the potential to create a difference in the corresponding renewable sector in terms of reduced set-up time, lesser cost, improved quality, enhanced productivity and exceptional competitiveness in the global market. Instrumental opportunities and challenges of robot deployment in the renewable sector are also discussed with a brief case study of Saudi Arabia. It is expected that the wider dissemination of the instrumental role of robotics in renewable energy will contribute to further developments and stimulate more collaborations and partnerships between professionals of robotics and energy communities.

Comparative Study of Conventional and Quick Die Change Stamping Process: The Issue of Setup Time and Storage

Metal stamping industry has Quick Die Change (QDC) as a form of Single Minutes Exchange of Dies (SMED) as an efficient production technique where the implementation depends on operator’s activities, clamping system, accessories type and position, etc. This QDC could apply to improve the process efficiency, control of inventory and reducing the cost. This research compared the traditional metal stamping process and QDC System (QDCS) of metal stamping. This research was using Focused Group Discussion (FGD), direct observation and experiments, conducted in a private metal stamping company in wider Jakarta region of Indonesia. It was observed that the QDCS significantly reduces setup time, storage space and the cost. The setup time and cost reduced to one third of the conventional and the requirement of storage decreased by 70%. In addition, QDCS reduces the waste significantly.

Improving Work System by Reducing Setup Time Activity in Drying Room in Pharmaceutical Industry with Single Minutes Exchange Die (SMED)

<p>Pharmaceutical industry especially that move in generic products, have many kinds of products to be manufactured in its production lines with the shortest possible time. This condition causes the frequent of changeover process. This cause requires the company to further improve the effectiveness of the machine by reducing the time of changeover process in terms of setup and clean-up machine. In order to reducing the time of setup and clean-up activity use the method of approaches the SMED analysis method to reduce unnecessary motion waste (value added and non-value added derived from lean manufacturing). Before conduct the research, in the 5th production line was not in the Kanban system. So, it often occurs the changeover process. The longest changeover time is in the drying room. After that conduct the Time and Motion Study in order to know the detail setup activities in the drying room. This is due to problems in the working methods and environment factors. Based on data from observations made on the engine FBD, there are 49 activities comprising 44 internal activities and 5 activities that can be converted to an external. Then from 44 internal activities, only 43 were able to be combined activity of up to 11 activities. Results from this study is able to decrease setup time and clean-up on the machine FBD by 62.18%. Based on this result also, this can increase the productivity of the production line.<br />Keywords: Unnecessary motion waste, Lean Manufacturing, Value added, Non-value added, Changeover process, SMED.</p>

Dynamic fluence field modulation for miscentered patients in computed tomography.

Traditional CT image acquisition uses bowtie filters to reduce dose, x-ray scatter, and detector dynamic range requirements. However, accurate patient centering within the bore of the CT scanner takes time and is often difficult to achieve precisely. Patient miscentering combined with a static bowtie filter can result in significant increases in dose, reconstruction noise, and CT number variations, and consequently raise overall exposure requirements. Approaches to estimate the patient position from scout scans and perform dynamic spatial beam filtration during acquisition are developed and applied in physical experiments on a CT test bench using different beam filtration strategies. While various dynamic beam modulation strategies have been developed, we focus on two approaches: (1)a simple approach using attenuation-based beam modulation using a translating bowtie filter and (2)dynamic beam modulation using multiple aperture devices (MADs)-an emerging beam filtration strategy based on binary filtration of the x-ray beam using variable width slits in a high-density beam blocker. Improved dose utilization and more consistent image performance with respect to an unmodulated baseline (static filter) are demonstrated for miscentered objects and dynamic beam filtration in physical experiments. For a homogeneous object miscentered by 4cm, the dynamic filter reduced the maximum regional noise and dose penalties (compared with a centered object) from 173% to 16% and 42% to 14%, respectively, for a traditional bowtie, 29% to 8% and 24% to 15%, respectively, for a single MAD, and 275% to 11% and 56% to 18%, respectively, for a dual-MAD filter. The proposed methodology has the potential to relax patient centering requirements within the scanner, reduce setup time, and facilitate additional CT dose reduction.

Quantifying the Impact of Optical Surface Guidance in the Treatment of Cancers of the Head and Neck

Surface guided radiation therapy (SGRT) is increasingly being adopted for use in radiation treatment delivery for Head and Neck (H&N) cancer patients. This study investigated the improvement of patient setup accuracy and reduction of setup time for SGRT compared to a conventional setup. A total of 60 H&N cancer patients were retrospectively included. Patients were categorized into three groups: oral cavity, oropharynx and nasopharynx/sinonasal sites with 20 patients in each group. They were further separated into two (2) subgroups, depending on whether they were set up with the aid of SGRT. The Align-RT™ system was used for SGRT in this work. Positioning was confirmed by daily kV-kV imaging in conjunction with weekly CBCT scans. Translational and rotational couch shifts along with patient setup times were recorded. Imaging setup time, which was defined as the elapsed time from the acquisition of the first image set to the end of the last image set, was recorded. Average translational shifts were larger in the non-SGRT group. Vertical shifts showed the most significant reduction in the SGRT group for both oropharynx and oral cavity groups. Pitch corrections were significantly higher in the SGRT group for oropharynx patients and higher pitch corrections were also observed in the SGRT groups of oral cavity and nasopharynx/sinonasal patients. The average setup time when SGRT guidance was employed was shorter for all three treatment sites although this did not reach statistical significance. The largest time reduction between the SGRT and non-SGRT groups was seen in the nasopharynx/sinonasal group. This study suggests that the use of SGRT decreases the magnitude of translational couch shifts during patient setup. However, the rotational corrections needed were generally higher with SGRT group. When SGRT was employed, a definite reduction in patient setup time was observed for nasopharynx/sinonasal and hypopharynx cancer patients.

Effect of setup time reduction on supply chain safety stocks

In most safety stock placement models, manufacturing lead times are treated as constant and exogenous quantities. In reality, however, manufacturing lead times depend on operating policies such as batch sizing and can be decreased by systematic investments in setup time reduction. This paper considers a manufacturer supplying a distribution network and integrates strategic safety stock placement with setup time reduction and batch sizing. We formulate the integrated problem with the objective of minimizing work-in-process and inventory holding costs and setup time reduction investment. An existing dynamic programming algorithm is extended to solve this problem efficiently. Using a two-stage distribution network, we characterize analytically the impact of setup time, batch sizes and integration on optimal positioning of safety stocks. Numerical studies on a three-stage network highlight the economic value of integration and setup time reduction. Setup time reduction is shown to be highly effective when utilization is high or when it can be accomplished with small investments. The savings from integration are high when value added at the manufacturer is high, and low when the marginal cost of setup reduction is either very high or very low.

Video based instrument pose tracking in navigated laparoscopic surgery

Introduction: To overcome the challenges of depth loss and limited field of view, image-guided surgery has been introduced for intraoperative guidance in laparoscopic surgery. Currently used navigation systems are based on external instrument tracking systems (e.g. optical, electromagnetic). However, these systems face challenges like instrument bending, line-of-sight (optical systems) and magnetic distortions (electromagnetic systems). Video based tracking represents a low-cost tracking method which would eliminate the need for external trackers and the induced errors. Methods: The proposed system uses the video from the stereo laparoscope currently used in the liver surgeries. Visual markers, attached or engraved on the instruments, are then detected in the left and right image of the video. Using the geometrical parameters of the camera, the pose of the instrument is calculated, which is then fed back to the navigation system. Results: The first prototype of a video based tracking system was implemented and integrated into a commercially available navigation system (CAS-One AR, CAScination AG, Switzerland). The instruments were successfully detected in the 3D video and their location displayed on the navigation screen. In a phantom setting, a tracking frequency of 10 frames per second was achieved. Conclusions: Initial integration of video based tracking of instruments in a surgical navigation system was demonstrated. By tracking the instruments in the laparoscopic video, the system eliminates the need for an external tracking system and might reduce setup time and inaccuracies caused by bending. However, the tracking frequency and the accuracy have to be improved and validated under clinical conditions.

Impact of safety factors and setup time reduction in a two-echelon supply chain management

Abstract A two-echelon supply chain model is formulated to reduce lead time and setup time to obtain their impacts on the expected total cost when lead time demand is stochastic in nature. Two different safety factors are utilized to avoid shortages even though the system contains backorder. The lead time is lot size dependent and consists of production time as well as setup time. It does not follow any particular distribution as only mean and standard deviation are known to us. A distribution free approach is used here to handle this situation. Quality improvement and safety factor are related issues to make an impact in the model as they are directly related to the customer satisfaction. The unit production cost is variable and dependent on production rate. An analytical procedure is derived to investigate the effects of reducing lead time, setup time crashing cost, and transportation crashing cost. Some numerical examples are illustrated to test the model. Sensitivity analysis and managerial insights are given to show the applicability of the model.

Cycle time reduction in manufacturing industry by designing a dedicated fixture: A case study

The principal commercial requirement of any manufacturing system is directed towards a growth in productivity. One of the options for achieving higher productivity is reducing the cycle time. Cycle time comprises of the following time element: operation, loading/unloading, set-up and idleness. In this work a case study of a reputed construction equipment manufacturing company of India is considered where in it was observed that the demand for the 4Ton compactors remained unmet as there were no dedicated fixtures for the tack welding operation of those compactors. This welding work was being performed using hook and carrier by trial and error method. This led to inefficient utilization of man, machine, money and increase in manufacturing time. So there was a need to design the dedicated fixture so as to reduce the cycle time of tack welding operation. Benefits of this new fixture are twofold. It reduces setup time because it eliminates marking for each job, positioning by trial and error method and hence increases the productivity of 4Ton compactor. Also, usage of fixture calls for semiskilled labor instead of skilled labor, reducing labor cost for improved production rate.Keywords: Productivity, compactor, fixture, setup time, cycle time

Scheduling Approach for the Simulation of a Sustainable Resource Supply Chain

The general goal of waste management is to conserve resources and avoid negative environmental impacts. This paper deals with the optimization of logistics processes at an underground waste storage site by means of solving scheduling issues and reducing setup times, with the help of a simulation model. Specific to underground waste storage is the fact that it is often only a side business to actual mining. With limited capacity and resources, all legal requirements must be met, while the business should still be profitable. This paper discusses the improvement of a logistical system’s performance using machine scheduling approaches with the support of a plant simulation model. The process sequence is determined by means of a priority index. Genetic algorithms are then applied to improve the priority index to further increase performance. Results of the simulation model show that the performance of the logistics system can be increased by up to 400 percent, ensuring adequate system performance for current as well as future demand without changes to the system’s capacities and resources.

FES-UPP: A Flexible Functional Electrical Stimulation System to Support Upper Limb Functional Activity Practice.

There is good evidence supporting highly intensive, repetitive, activity-focused, voluntary-initiated practice as a key to driving recovery of upper limb function following stroke. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) offers a potential mechanism to efficiently deliver this type of therapy, but current commercial devices are too inflexible and/or insufficiently automated, in some cases requiring engineering support. In this paper, we report a new, flexible upper limb FES system, FES-UPP, which addresses the issues above. The FES-UPP system consists of a 5-channel stimulator running a flexible FES finite state machine (FSM) controller, the associated setup software that guides therapists through the setup of FSM controllers via five setup stages, and finally the Session Manager used to guide the patient in repeated attempts at the activities(s) and provide feedback on their performance. The FSM controller represents a functional activity as a sequence of movement phases. The output for each phase implements the stimulations to one or more muscles. Progression between movement phases is governed by user-defined rules. As part of a clinical investigation of the system, nine therapists used the FES-UPP system to set up FES-supported activities with twenty two patient participants with impaired upper-limbs. Therapists with little or no FES experience and without any programming skills could use the system in their usual clinical settings, without engineering support. Different functional activities, tailored to suit the upper limb impairment levels of each participant were used, in up to 8 sessions of FES-supported therapy per participant. The efficiency of delivery of the therapy using FES-UPP was promising when compared with published data on traditional face-face therapy. The FES-UPP system described in this paper has been shown to allow therapists with little or no FES experience and without any programming skills to set up state-machine FES controllers bespoke to the patient’s impairment patterns and activity requirements, without engineering support. The clinical results demonstrated that the system can be used to efficiently deliver high intensity, activity-focused therapy. Nevertheless, further work to reduce setup time is still required.

Machining Powerhouses

A theme in the energy sector is the need to cut challenging materials, often in a single cycle. Three companies have invested in machinery that delivers on power, plus cycle and set-up time reduction, while another has boosted performance via CADCAM software adoption

New Approach for the Application of USP Apparatus 3 in Dissolution Tests: Case Studies of Three Antihypertensive Immediate-Release Tablets.

The USP Apparatus 3 is a compendial dissolution Apparatus that has been mainly used to assess the performance of modified-release drug products. However, this Apparatus can be applied to dissolution testing of immediate-release tablets as well, with several advantages such as lower consumption of dissolution media, reduced setup time in quality control routine, and minimized hydrodynamic issues. In this work, three immediate-release (IR) tablets containing antihypertensive drugs of different Biopharmaceutic Classification System (BCS) classes were evaluated in order to assess the possible interchangeability between the official dissolution method using typical USP Apparatus 1 or 2 and the proposed methods using USP Apparatus 3. Depending on the selection of the appropriate operational conditions, such as dip rate and sieve mesh size, it was observed that USP Apparatus 3 could provide similar dissolution profiles compared to USP Apparatus 1 or 2 to the drug products tested. In addition, USP Apparatus 3 avoided conning issues related to USP Apparatus 2. The successful application of USP Apparatus 3 in dissolution tests for IR drug products depends on the definition of specific test conditions for each product, considering all the equipment variables, as well as drug and formulation characteristics.

Penentuan Waktu Proses Pembuatan Kain dengan Pendekatan Cross-Case pada Industri Tekstil

PT. X was a company engaged in weaving cotton production. Many types of cotton consisted of type 185, type 186, type 188 and type 189. Nevertheless, there were still many problems in the operational production of the weaving department. One of them was the length in processing time of the weaving section that could affect the next process. Based on a literature review, it showed that lean method could be implemented in process industry even it was not entirely. The method that usually used in the process industry was the cross-case method. A case study was a method that chosen in conducting this research by forming propositions first. There were two products selected as the case study: cotton 188 and cotton 189. This research consisted of two steps. The first step was the measurement of operational performance before implementing the lean method. The second step was cross-case analysis by synchronizing between the empirical data and the propositions. The lean method would increase the accuracy of product delivery. It had been proven by reduction of the cycle time of both products ranges from 18,5% to 31,5%. The cross-case method could be applied with the Kanban, the set-up time reduction and forming the pull system in the production floor.

Effective Basin–Blade Configurations of a Gravitational Water Vortex Turbine for Microhydropower Generation

Among various microhydropower plants, gravitational water vortex power plants are emerging because of their simple installation, reduced setup time, and minimal maintenance cost. The methodology and the selection of a suitable basin and turbine blade combinations are yet to be explained by researchers. This study attempts to investigate the parameters that affect the formation and strength of a vortex for efficient power generation using an artificially induced air-core vortex. Computational fluid dynamics based on a two-phase flow analysis of the vortex formation at different basin parameters resulted in the selection of a suitable configuration of the basin. The basin was then used in the blade analysis with different blade shapes at various load conditions. An experimental setup was also fabricated for the validation of the numerical results, in which a close agreement was observed. The proposed methodology could be used to determine the plant specifications and the blade size and shape for various flow rates and heads. The role of vortex height in determining the performance of the gravitational water vortex turbine was explored. Among the four types of blades used in the study, cross-flow blades have shown the best efficiency for the same discharge and head conditions.

The Effect of Worker Learning on Scheduling Jobs in a Hybrid Flow Shop: A Bi-Objective Approach

This paper studies learning effect as a resource utilization technique that can model improvement in worker’s ability as a result of repeating similar tasks. By considering learning of workers while performing setup times, a schedule can be determined to place jobs that share similar tools and fixtures next to each other. The purpose of this paper is to schedule a set of jobs in a hybrid flow shop (HFS) environment with learning effect while minimizing two objectives that are in conflict: namely maximum completion time (makespan) and total tardiness. Minimizing makespan is desirable from an internal efficiency viewpoint, but may result in individual jobs being scheduled past their due date, causing customer dissatisfaction and penalty costs. A bi-objective mixed integer programming model is developed, and the complexity of the developed bi-objective model is compared against the bi-criteria one through numerical examples. The effect of worker learning on the structure of assigned jobs to machines and their sequences is analyzed. Two solution methods based on the hybrid water flow like algorithm and non-dominated sorting and ranking concepts are proposed to solve the problem. The quality of the approximated sets of Pareto solutions is evaluated using several performance criteria. The results show that the proposed algorithms with learning effect perform well in reducing setup times and eliminate the need for setups itself through proper scheduling.

Dynamic beam filtering for miscentered patients.

Accurate centering of the patient within the bore of a CT scanner takes time and is often difficult to achieve precisely. Patient miscentering can result in significant dose and image noise penalties with the use of traditional bowtie filters. This work describes a system to dynamically position an x-ray beam filter during image acquisition to enable more consistent image performance and potentially lower dose needed for CT imaging. We propose a new approach in which two orthogonal low-dose scout images are used to estimate a parametric model of the object describing its shape, size, and location within the field of view (FOV). This model is then used to compute an optimal filter motion profile by minimizing the variance of the expected detector fluence for each projection. Dynamic filtration was implemented on a cone-beam CT (CBCT) test bench using two different physical filters: 1) an aluminum bowtie and 2) a structured binary filter called a multiple aperture device (MAD). Dynamic filtration performance was compared to a static filter in studies of dose and reconstruction noise as a function of the degree of miscentering of a homogeneous water phantom. Estimated filter trajectories were found to be largely sinusoidal with an amplitude proportional to the amount of miscentering. Dynamic filtration demonstrated an improved ability to keep the spatial distribution of dose and reconstruction noise at baseline levels across varying levels of miscentering, reducing the maximum noise and dose deviation from 53% to 15% and 42% to 14% respectively for the bowtie filter, and 25% to 8% and 24% to 15% respectively for the MAD filter. Dynamic positioning of beam filters during acquisition improves dose utilization and image quality over static filters for miscentered patients. Such dynamic filters relax positioning requirements and have the potential to reduce set-up time and lower dose requirements.

An immune system based algorithm for cell formation problem

Technological developments enable the design and manufacturing of products tailored to individual consumers. Cellular Manufacturing Systems (CMS) can be considered as to ease flexibility, to reduce setup time, throughput time, work-in-process inventories, and material handling costs. Cell formation problem (CFP) that is one of the critical CMS design problems is the assignment of parts and machines to specific cells based on their similarity. This study introduces a Clonal Selection Algorithm (CSA) with a novel encoding structure that is efficient to solve real-sized problems. Unlike the methods in literature that define the number of cells as a constant number, this algorithm is significant because it can obtain the optimum number of cell to generate best efficacy value. Proposed CSA is tested by using 67 (35 well-known and 32 less-known) test problems. CSA obtains the same 63 best-known optimal solutions, provides solutions for the 3 of the well-known test problem and a new solution for the largest test problem (50 machine 150 part) that was not possible to be solved by the mixed integer linear programming model due to the high computational complexity. Final CSA grouping results are illustrated with figures to attract attention to the singleton and residual cells.

Fisher Manufacturing Company (A)

Dorothy Hoffman, plant manager for the Clarksburg, Virginia, location of Fisher Manufacturing Company (Fisher), had a problem: her plant was repeatedly failing to improve its dismal performance when it came to meeting shipping dates. Only 60% of its June shipments had met the well-established four-week service standard of the coated-abrasives industry. She knew that an investment of $8 million in new equipment would provide a significant reduction in setup times for a major portion of Fisher's production process, but she also knew that the board of directors would need more than just her faith that the investment was worthwhile. She needed hard numbers to justify a recommendation.The case can be used to show the benefits of production flexibility through an increase in capacity by setup-reduction efforts. By reducing setup time, smaller batches may be produced, allowing Fisher to be more responsive to the market while lowering its inventory investment. Excerpt UVA-OM-1598 Jul. 5, 2018 Fisher Manufacturing Company (A) Dorothy Hoffman, plant manager for the Clarksburg, Virginia, location of Fisher Manufacturing Company (Fisher), angrily tossed the monthly shipping report back onto her desk and swore under her breath. The Clarksburg plant had again failed to improve its dismal performance when it came to meeting shipping dates. Only 60% of its June shipments had met the well-established four-week service standard of the coated-abrasives industry. Hoffman knew that prompt customer service was necessary to maintain Fisher's competitive position in the industry, but so far, she had seen little improvement in this aspect of the plant's performance. Hoffman was considering the possibility of replacing some of the plant's equipment in hopes of meeting the customer-service targets. An investment of $ 8 million would provide a significant reduction in setup times for a major portion of Fisher's production process. Hoffman knew the board of directors would need more than just her faith that the investment was worthwhile. She needed hard numbers to justify a recommendation. Company Background Fisher was a leading producer of abrasives, including such products as sandpaper and grinding wheels. Industrial firms were the company's primary market. Fisher had four manufacturing plants in the midsouthern and southeastern United States. Fisher's Clarksburg plant produced all of the company's coated-abrasive products—a line consisting of approximately 5,000 finished items in numerous grades, shapes, and sizes. The Clarksburg plant had $ 126.5 million in annual sales, giving it an 18% share of the US coated-abrasives market and making Fisher the third largest of the four major domestic producers. . . .