SMED - Makes Lean Flexible
concept of Single Minute Exchange of Die, or SMED. Quick changeover, as it is called in many
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.
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.
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.
Collected by:
Tarikul Islam jony
01912885383
jonytex073@gmail.com
concept of Single Minute Exchange of Die, or SMED. Quick changeover, as it is called in many
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.
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.
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.
Collected by:
Tarikul Islam jony
01912885383
jonytex073@gmail.com
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