Discover what is SMED and apply this Lean technique

If you have seen at least one Formula 1 race, you should have noticed how pit stop times are minimal among the teams! In most cases, the duration is less than 10 seconds to allow the rider to return to the race track, right?

This short period for the exchange of tires, fuel supply or even some repair in the vehicle by the participating teams is required because of the high competitiveness that exists in this modality, both teams understand that the pit stop is an activity that adds no value to the process.

If one did not have to make one or more pit stops throughout the race, the rider and his car could be faster and more efficient.

However, since it still isn't possible to eliminate this operation, the members of the tournament of each company seek, therefore, to at least obtain better performance than its competitors by reducing the time of this activity.

The article of today isn't about Formula 1 races or pit stops, though. Let's learn an excellent lean tool called SMED that combats a daily operation in the industrial scenario: the activity of setup - period for exchange and adjustments in machinery for a process for the entry of new products into the production line.

The importance of stimulating process flexibility!

Nowadays, it's rare to have a company that serves only one specific customer, right? In addition to being rare, this strategy is also very risky, since if the customer fails or even decides to change his supplier to another, his business will tend to go bankrupt.

To prevent this from happening and also enable new customers to be achieved, a more effective strategy is to produce and market a wider variety of products that serve different consumer markets.

But there's a catch: the more different products you produce, the more setup operations are needed.

As we have seen in relation to Formula 1, as well as the pit stop, the setup time does not add any value to the processed product. On the contrary, it only brings waste. And it is to mitigate it that we propose the application of one of the main techniques of Lean Manufacturing to stimulate the flexibility of a process: SMED - Single Minute Exchange of Die!

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Check out the 6 phases of SMED application!

1. Know the current setup operation

Regardless of the existence of a procedure for this operation, it is crucial to monitor, observe and record each stage of the process, including different production lines, shifts, and even operators.

Adopting checklists, a camera, and filming is a great way to thoroughly understand all of the setup operations currently being performed.

2. Examine the current setup operation

Collected all this information, it is then necessary to examine them as carefully as possible, distinguishing internal setup activities - when the production line needs to be inoperative - from external setup - when the production line can be in operation.

3. Optimize the internal and external setup operation

When all internal and external setup activities are fully documented and understood, the goal now is to optimize them, so that each of the known and executed tasks goes through a criterious sequence: eliminate, combine, reduce or simplify.

Remembering that in the worst of situations, external activities are more interesting than internal - since the machine may be in operation during the accomplishment of the task. Tools such as Brainstorming and the 5S are great alternatives at this stage.

4. Test and examine the new setup operation

After gaining a more efficient way to run the setup by optimizing internal and external activities, the purpose here is to test the new setup operation on different shifts, operators, production lines and products.

It is performing this test that other adjustments and small changes can be examined for excellence in this operation.

5. Standardize the new setup operation

In this phase, the time has already been reduced dramatically in the processes involved in the application of this tool - SMED. Now, the task is to ensure that compliance with this new procedure is in fact maintained by operators.

For this, the use of a simple and objective Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in conjunction with an illustration of a Flow chart can help. Allocating this document in an easily accessible location and training of all people involved in the setup processes is also paramount.

6. Establish a performance system

Remember the philosophy of Lean Manufacturing called Kaizen? Well, with the setup time improved, the subsequent search for even better performance should continue. In this case, employing a performance system that reveals and encourages setup time reductions is a great tip for achieving increasingly competitive goals.

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