What is it?
Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) is a process that aims to reduce change over time of machines, with the ultimate goal of reducing equipment setup time to a minute. SMED is a progressive procedure that aims to optimize a small part of the process, everytime it is executed, until achieve the minimum changeover time possible.
To achieve an optimized time, SMED helps reducing the number of tasks, by cutting the ones that are not useful for changeovers, so the process becomes faster, easier and more efficient.
How is it implemented?
The process starts by identifying changeover tasks. Following, tasks are analyzed to find their true purpose, and, low costs solutions to replace them. Finally, solutions are implemented and changeover time and costs are reduced.
The process is defined into steps that aim to reduce unuseful taks, and also aim to focus human effort into more relvant parts of the operation:
- Differentiate external and internal activities: Activities that are executed while machines are operating and while they are not.
- Transform the internal in external activites, so they can be done while the machine is operating.
- Standardize the different steps of the changeover so everyone follows the same efficient patterns.
- Modify machines to facilitate the changeover.
- Find parallel activites that can be executed at the same time, to reduce time.
- Focus efforts in production by reducing material adjustments tasks.
- Find tasks that can be automated
Processes can be digitized in platforms that organize processes, deploying a calendar tasks calendar per workers.This igitalization supports workers during execution, and supports managers by traking results, and control execution in real-time.
Using a AR tool, whether with HoloLens or mobile devices, team members can access different inputs, workflow, documents and AR guides that augment their capabilities and surround them with contextual information. This way training efforts can be highly reduced by only providing support tools to workers.
Benefits
More visbility
Improved decision-making
Improved efficiency
These tools allow to optimize the process by accelerating its speed and making it reach a single minute quickly. The increased visibility and digital automated reports are quickly made available to managers that will be now able to analyze it and take decisions accordingly. Decisions are quicker, more accurate, and changeover time is reduced, and more efficient, which translates into more time for production.
How can we help?
Data can be centralized into a single digital platform that allows to have full visibility of all processes. In fact, an increased control over operations, supported with automated reports from execution, as well as dashboards speeds up analysis, and makes it much easier to detect unuseful tasks that may be eliminated or automated. The platform, supported by a mobile app with Augmented Reality (AR) helps workers throughout execution of new changeover processes, avoiding creating new training needs to regularly.