Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED)

In today’s manufacturing world, efficiency and productivity are the important keys to success. Every minute counts, which is why every organization is constantly seeking ways to improve or optimize their operations. Imagine a situation where we are being able to switch from one production process to another in less time than it takes to brew our morning coffee! Its done by an approach called SMED.

Doesn’t this sound interesting?

Probably yes without any doubt! And it is achievable with the technique called SMED. Single-Minute Exchange of Die – a powerful methodology designed to transform the way we approach setup times in the processes.

SMED pushes an organization to a situation where it functions with minimal downtime in the changeover loss and maximum output, along with keeping an eye on the cost it allows the organization to quickly respond to customer/market demands. The organization that adapts SMED can create the possibilities of making the agile production lines, that drives growth and innovation.

In this article we shall discuss about the sustainable practices of implementing SMED in an organization and how to elevate the manufacturing game.

What is SMED?

Single-Minute Exchange of Die – a powerful lean methodology designed to transform the way we approach setup times in the processes. SMED is all about reducing the time it takes to switch from one production process to another—ideally to less than 10 minutes. Irrespective of the industry or products creating amazing solutions to reduce/eliminate the long waits in the system.

Purpose

SMED is a structured approach to continuously reduce changeover times of machine and systems in the single minute range. Once we have reduced the changeover time to certain limits, we should not stop there, its a Continuous Improvement Process (CIP).

Imagine that, you are in a race, and every second counts. That’s exactly the mindset behind the SMED. Now, with this mindset we shall build a strategy to bring down our changeover/setup times to less than 10 mins or any minute in that is in single digit.

Description

Changeover time refers to the time between the last good part of order A and the first good part order B. This also takes into account setting up and starting up the machine to meet required quality and production standards. A distinction is made between internal and external changeover time.

Why SMED Matters?

We shall shortly discuss about why it is important and later let’s understand technical terminologies like Internal & External activities.

The successful implementation of SMED has various benefits like increased flexibility, reduced downtime, enhanced quality, cost savings, increased opportunity capacity & most importantly improved employee morale.

Let’s imagine a scenario at a car race pit stop, detailing the situation before and after implementing SMED

A typical pit stop takes several minutes (i.e., more than 10 mins) to change the car tires & do the necessary adjustments. While the pit crew has performed its duties and the car is in perfect condition to run, this is still not sufficient to win the race, even with the best driver behind the wheel. The probable reasons for the high changeover time could be lack of organization, the processes without any standards & inefficient coordination.

With same pit crew and the best driver, the race could have been won by implementing SMED techniques at their pit stop. The time it takes for a SMED implemented pit stop can be as less than 15 secs. Could you believe this? Yes, we should believe it. because it is the live example that we notice in any F1 car racing. Now, in this is article we shall predominantly discuss in detail about the changeover process for a manufacturing organizations or machines.

Sustainable Approach of SMED Implementation

Only systematic approach makes the SMED more sustainable, and it demands the more innovative solutions in the deep-down progress. This will result in the most amazing and effective results. Let us discuss the definitions and technical terminologies used in the SMED.

The definition of external and internal activities:

External changeover/activities can be carried out on running machines (prepare tools, cleaning activities, organize things or requirements)

Internal changeover/activities the machine is down.( a tool cannot be changed while the machine is functioning)

Experience the internal and external activity simulation to understand the SMED properly. You can watch the change over time reducing while separation.

We shall start with the systematic SMED Approach for the sustainable system,

Follow the following steps to implement SMED.

Step 1:

Analysis of the current changeover process

At very first there will be no difference between internal and external changeover

Step 2:

Now follow activities like separation of internal & external changeover (organizational improvement)

And the below mentioned steps are continuous improvement process.

Step 3:

Reducing internal changeover processes through technical improvements

Step 4:

Optimization and synchronization of external changeover activities

Step 5:

Implement and review measures and check for transferability and lessons learned.

Step 6:

Train the new changeover standard and improve changeover process continuously through SMED board

Now Let’s discuss what’s the potential of SMED:

Smaller batch sizes by reducing the changeover time (Flexibility)

The comparison from the above-mentioned three situations clearly says that we should have shorter downtimes in the machine to be more productive, along with this the smaller batch sizes can make even very shorter throughput times.

Conclusion

As we delve deeper into the sustainable implementation of SMED, it’s essential to document and monitor the progress effectively. In our upcoming article, we will explore the necessary documentation and strategies for tracking the SMED implementation process, ensuring that organizations can maintain momentum in their continuous improvement journey.

By adopting these practices, businesses can not only elevate their operational capabilities but also create a robust framework for ongoing success in an ever-evolving manufacturing landscape.

To summarize what we have discussed in the article, Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) methodology serves as a transformative approach to enhancing manufacturing efficiency by significantly reducing changeover times.

With the culture of continuous improvement and systematically separating internal and external activities, organizations can achieve remarkable flexibility, reduced downtime, and improved quality, ultimately leading to cost savings and increased employee morale. The potential of SMED lies in its ability to facilitate smaller batch sizes and shorter throughput times. Thanks for reading this article and we shall discuss more in our upcoming article stay tuned for more gifts and content.

About the Author

Bharathkumar Radha Krishna

With a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology and two SolidWorks certifications, he is a proficient and passionate Industrial Engineer with expertise in lean methodologies and value stream mapping. He has been working as an Industrial Engineer at Tata Group since Sep 2021, after a nine-month stint at WEG India, he have designed and implemented effective lean manufacturing processes for various products and projects.

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