Title: Setup time reduction to enhance the agility of the manufacturing industry through kobetsu kaizen and SMED: a case study

Authors: Rahul Kumar; Kanwarpreet Singh; Sanjiv Kumar Jain

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ambala College of Engineering and Applied Research, Ambala, Haryana, India

Abstract: Nowadays, the manufacturing industry is increasingly globalised and competitive, where the quality, cost, variety and fulfilment of the delivery deadlines are fundamental factors for the customers. To successfully meet these demands, organisations must find strategies to make their processes more flexible and agile. In addition, product diversification and reduced orders lead organisations to have optimised their setup processes on the equipment. A short setup time is critical for being able to produce small quantities of a large diversity of products. However, producing smaller batch-sizes causes more changeovers. Single minute exchange of die (SMED) has been widely used and offers satisfactory techniques for setup and changeover time reduction. This paper shares a real industry experience for a reduction in setup time through SMED and kobetsu kaizen. The existing condition was analysed to find opportunities for improvement. Achieved improvements involved decreasing setup time by 79.10% through successful implementation of SMED. The outcomes of the present study will prove to be beneficial for agile organisations in their pursuit of tackling (reduce or even eliminate) the setup and adjustment losses.

Keywords: SMED; setup time; agility; manufacturing industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPMB.2022.125320

International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking, 2022 Vol.12 No.5, pp.631 - 656

Received: 06 Aug 2020
Accepted: 10 Oct 2020
Published online: 07 Sep 2022 *

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