A Case Study on Reducing Setup Time Using SMED on a Turning Line

Abstract

Today, manufacturers must meet customer demands in a shorter time with the best quality and lowest cost to survive in competitive environment. One way to achieve this is to reduce production costs by eliminating waste activities in a production system. Machine adjustment processes are the activities that do not create value, and Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED), lean manufacturing tool, has been developed to reduce these activities. In this paper we have performed a case study in a bearing manufacturing company to reduce the machine setup time on turning line using the SMED. The emphasis is given to both transferring internal activities into external ones as many as possible and minimizing the internal ones. The main results attained from the study indicate that the machine setup times were reduced more than 45% for the turning line. Consequently, machine capacities can be significantly increased by the application of SMED method.