SMED, which stands for Single Minute Exchange of Die, is also known by a number of other names, for example Set Up Reduction and Set Up Improvement. The term SMED was allegedly coined by Shigeo Shingo, after the Second World War, when the Japanese car manufacturers found themselves competing against the large car manufacturers of… Read more »
Industry Forum Blog
SMED – Single Minute Exchange of Die
5 cash and customer benefits from applying SMED methodology
In these days where consumers demand an ever increasing variety of goods and services at the touch of a button, the flexibility of your process is key. Whether you’re running equipment invented in the first industrial revolution or the fourth, you will almost always benefit from reducing the amount of time it takes to change… Read more »
Can you spot the crippling costs of inventory?
In the 90’s I worked in an amazing old 4 story mill where we made replica football kits. Half of the bottom floor was dedicated to incoming rolls of material and outgoing finished shirts and shorts. While some problems were instantly apparent, like transporting all the material to the top floor to be cut, others… Read more »
3 Actions to take before you invest in the latest maintenance technology
As we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution the various asset management and Computerised Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) offer bigger, better and more affordable solutions than ever before. Instead of using your own computer network you can buy into cloud based systems. In the world of interconnected devices every user can access the system using tablets… Read more »
5 things you need to know about Mistake Proofing
Mistake Proofing is also known as Poka Yoke or Error Proofing. It used to be referred to as Baka Yoke, Japanese for fool proofing. This name has dropped out of favour as more is understood about the causes of defects. Rather than blaming a defect on an employee, we now look at it… Read more »
Do Just One Thing To Build a Better Manufacturing Future
We are living in a time of blindingly rapid technological change. Every day we read about a new material or method of manufacture that will not only improve our productivity but help us to improve health and raise living standards across the world. We are on the brink of the fourth industrial revolution. But…. In… Read more »
Marmite and Hoshin Kanri
Business terminology – it’s a bit like Marmite. You either love it or hate it! Some people can’t wait to try out the latest Japanese sounding technique. Others are put off by foreign names, or associate them with a particular industry. I find it always helps to use an analogy. This takes the focus off… Read more »
Think “Making Smarties” to help you pull and flow your product
To make your system lean you need to introduce pull and flow. A pull system is one that is designed to make only what the customer requires, when they want it and in the exact amount. Flow means producing or processing one piece at a time. Each item is passed on immediately without waiting or… Read more »
7 Principles to guide the creation of your unique lean system
There are several different perspectives on how lean is best achieved. But the one I am used to deploying centres on changing from push to pull systems and the reduction of batch sizes. The key is to ensure that you, as the supplier, never overproduce. Remember overproduction is one of the 7 Wastes! It means… Read more »
Using Standard Procedures today and tomorrow. The impact of digital technologies on standardised work
The sight of Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) being used in the workplace is a familiar one in best practise companies. But will these paper based documents become relics in the digital factory? Why do we have them? … Read more »
