SMED – Makes Lean Flexible
When looking for places to lean out the manufacturing process, many managers skip over the concept of Single Minute Exchange of Die, or SMED. Quick changeover, as it is called in many circles, should always be a concern, particularly when it comes to assembly lines and manufacturing. The actions needed to take, while simple, have a long lasting impact on the business and the quality, speed, and capability of the line to react to demand changes.
To completely understand SMED, you have to understand assembly lines in exacting detail, and it helps to know what the objectives of lean processes in general are. Primarily, assembly lines produce a very specific product by utilizing specific work cells or work stations that produce pieces of that product with a high degree of efficiency, quality, and speed. Unfortunately, while this may be able to produce the product quickly, one of the major drawbacks is that the line is only able to produce a single class of product.
For example, an assembly line that produces stator windings cannot be turned around to produce control circuitry. Therefore, in order to produce a wide variety of products and models, or even a single, very complex product with many assembly stages, a company must run many assembly lines, which takes up a large amount of space, and space costs money. Even if the company wants to produce many variations of the same product, such as a product with different features or model specifications, many times, a single assembly line cannot handle these requirements.
The general concept behind lean processes is to reduce or eliminate waste and cut costs by simplification or process changes. Now that you know about the skeletal model of assembly line manufacturing and lean processing, you should be able to see the value of enabling a single assembly line to produce many different products or variations of products.
By doing this, the company reduces the amount of space necessary for them to occupy, they are able to react to demand shifts in product lines, and overhead is severely cut down so many products become profitable for the company to produce. This is where SMED comes into play.
If a company were following the SMED philosophy exactly, they would be able to produce a company and manufacturing layout that could change the dies and robotic programming in the assembly line so that the assembly line can shift from producing one model to another in a very short amount of time. By doing this, the company will not need as many assembly lines, or as many branches on a single line, therefore reducing the square footage necessary to manufacture a wide line of products. They also will not need a completely different set of employees to keep the assembly line moving, and will not need to upkeep, buy, or power any additional equipment associated with the second or third line.
Finally, since the company can quickly adjust the line to manufacture which ever product they would like, they can quickly change the assembly line to manufacture the product that is seeing a higher demand and cut back on the product that is seeing a lower demand. By achieving this incredibly agile position, a company can easily manage its inventory and maintain a large amount of liquidity in their company.
The first time a company embarks on a quest to enable SMED, they will not be able to change over the manufacturing lines as quickly as they would like. The end goal is to be able to shift the assembly line from one product to another in less than 100 minutes, therefore reducing the amount of downtime associated with the shift. The company will not realize this significant progress until a few months of lean studies and process evaluation.
Thank about the various models of GPS units that are on the market. Some of the market leaders have dozens, if not hundreds, of models to manufacture, in order to meet the demands and wants of the customer. There isn’t a single assembly line in the world that can manufacture such a large variation in products, but they can manufacture two, or a few, very similar products.
The GPS manufacturer has 12 assembly lines and decides to pursue SMED with the end goal of reducing to 4 lines. They estimate that this will cut costs by 60%, reduce downtime by 20%, and make them able to increase revenue by 30% by expanding their markets by offering additional models to their overseas customers. As shown in Figure (1), they commissioned a study and found that they can consolidate their 12 lines into 4, as they had wanted. They then were able to commission the other lines to produce the additional models without incurring any significant additional overhead.
To completely understand SMED, you have to understand assembly lines in exacting detail, and it helps to know what the objectives of lean processes in general are. Primarily, assembly lines produce a very specific product by utilizing specific work cells or work stations that produce pieces of that product with a high degree of efficiency, quality, and speed. Unfortunately, while this may be able to produce the product quickly, one of the major drawbacks is that the line is only able to produce a single class of product.
For example, an assembly line that produces stator windings cannot be turned around to produce control circuitry. Therefore, in order to produce a wide variety of products and models, or even a single, very complex product with many assembly stages, a company must run many assembly lines, which takes up a large amount of space, and space costs money. Even if the company wants to produce many variations of the same product, such as a product with different features or model specifications, many times, a single assembly line cannot handle these requirements.
The general concept behind lean processes is to reduce or eliminate waste and cut costs by simplification or process changes. Now that you know about the skeletal model of assembly line manufacturing and lean processing, you should be able to see the value of enabling a single assembly line to produce many different products or variations of products.
By doing this, the company reduces the amount of space necessary for them to occupy, they are able to react to demand shifts in product lines, and overhead is severely cut down so many products become profitable for the company to produce. This is where SMED comes into play.
If a company were following the SMED philosophy exactly, they would be able to produce a company and manufacturing layout that could change the dies and robotic programming in the assembly line so that the assembly line can shift from producing one model to another in a very short amount of time. By doing this, the company will not need as many assembly lines, or as many branches on a single line, therefore reducing the square footage necessary to manufacture a wide line of products. They also will not need a completely different set of employees to keep the assembly line moving, and will not need to upkeep, buy, or power any additional equipment associated with the second or third line.
Finally, since the company can quickly adjust the line to manufacture which ever product they would like, they can quickly change the assembly line to manufacture the product that is seeing a higher demand and cut back on the product that is seeing a lower demand. By achieving this incredibly agile position, a company can easily manage its inventory and maintain a large amount of liquidity in their company.
The first time a company embarks on a quest to enable SMED, they will not be able to change over the manufacturing lines as quickly as they would like. The end goal is to be able to shift the assembly line from one product to another in less than 100 minutes, therefore reducing the amount of downtime associated with the shift. The company will not realize this significant progress until a few months of lean studies and process evaluation.
Thank about the various models of GPS units that are on the market. Some of the market leaders have dozens, if not hundreds, of models to manufacture, in order to meet the demands and wants of the customer. There isn’t a single assembly line in the world that can manufacture such a large variation in products, but they can manufacture two, or a few, very similar products.
The GPS manufacturer has 12 assembly lines and decides to pursue SMED with the end goal of reducing to 4 lines. They estimate that this will cut costs by 60%, reduce downtime by 20%, and make them able to increase revenue by 30% by expanding their markets by offering additional models to their overseas customers. As shown in Figure (1), they commissioned a study and found that they can consolidate their 12 lines into 4, as they had wanted. They then were able to commission the other lines to produce the additional models without incurring any significant additional overhead.
Figure (1)
While this is something that anybody can suggest, it is a very high level concept that has to be evaluated not only at the manager level, but at the upper management level as well. The effects are far reaching, and without careful planning, a company can possibly negatively affect their output capacity, leaving a shortage of inventory in the supply chain.
SMED is a very effective way of significantly changing the way a company does business. It should be fully explored, particularly if a company is in the manufacturing business.
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