Set-Up Reduction: Saving Dollars With Common Sense - Hardcover

Claunch, Jerry W.; Stang, Philip D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0945456042 ISBN 13: 9780945456049

Publisher: P T Pubns, 1990

Synopsis

Set-Up Reduction: Saving Dollars with Common Sense is a hands-on book for the applications-minded professional. It combines theory with experience and it will show you how to change "sense" into dollars. Learn how to achieve a 75% reduction in set-up time with a low cost/no cost solution. This book also guides your company to increased profits, increased uptime and improved flow. Set-up Reduction is best accomplished by developing a team of people working to insure the delivery of 100% quality parts in the right quantity at the right time at the right total cost. That means frequent, small production runs.

The ideal manufacturing objective is to perform set-ups so quickly that lot sizes of one can be accomplished. Set-up Reduction introduces a level of flexibility which allows companies to tap the capacity of all these areas to their fullest and to schedule the use of these resources based on customer demand. When a company can change its equipment over in minutes instead of hours, the result is a capacity increase, inventory reduction, quality improvement, cost optimization and flexibility to meet world competition.

About this title

About the Author

Jerry W. Claunch, C.P.M., a former Senior Vice President of Professionals for Technology Associates, Inc. (PRO-TECH), a company specializing in educating all levels of management in the areas of Just-In-Time, Total Quality Control, Manufacturing Systems Implementation and Automations, was active in the development and implementation of Just-In-Time at the Kawasaki Motors Corporation, Lincoln, NE. For 20 years, he has been a practitioner and educator in repetitive and discrete manufacturing as well as distribution. Mr. Claunch, who holds degrees from Faith Baptist Bible College and the Computer Programming Institute, serves on the advisory board of the University of Nebraska. He has also served on the Board of Directors and as National Professional Development Chairman for NAPM. In addition, he is a member of ASQC, APICS and SME. He has been a frequent lecturer on JIT and purchasing management for these associations.

From the Back Cover

Find out why the ideal manufacturing objective is to perform set-ups so quickly that lot sizes of one can be accomplished.

Find out how you can save dollars using common sense and no-cost/low-cost set-up reduction methods.

One manufacturer reduced a 45 MINUTE changeover to 9 SECONDS.

A Midwest comopany reduced its lead time for one product from 25 DAYS to 6 HOURS.

From the Inside Flap

The best set-up is no set-up at all: Set-up reduction can be best accomplished by developing a team of people, supported by management, which works to insure the delivery of 100 percent quality parts in the right quantity at the right time at the right total cost. That means frequent, small production runs. We are talking about flexible manufacturing.

Flexible manufacturing will be possible when machine operators are able to reduce set-up times so that production can quickly change from one product to another in order to meet customer requirements. Therefore: The ideal manufacturing objective is to perform set-ups so quickly that lot sizes of one can be accomplished.

In most business environments, companies are up against the constraints of their resources of money, equipment and manpower. Set-up reduction introduces a level of flexibility which allows companies to tap the capacity of all these areas to their fullest or, more precisely, to schedule the use of these resources based on customer demand. When a company can change its equipment over in minutes instead of hours, the result is a capacity increase. Capacity increases of 25 percent are not uncommon in a set-up reduction program.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Chapter Two: Establishing The Foundation For Set-Up Reduction. Isaac Newton once proclaimed that he could only see as far as he could because he stood on the shoulders of those who came before him. The same philosophy is true of set-up reduction. Setup time is relativelv easy to define:

The time from the last good part of the previous run until the first good part of the next run is madeat a normal efficiency rate.

This definition may sound simple, but let's take a look at what it really means. When a component is being manufactured and the final piece from the previous run is produced, we can then start to measure the time elapsed until we get the first good part from the next new job. All the time in between the last good piece and first good piece of the new set-up must be measured.

Set-up reduction, then, must incorporate all of the following actions into one integrated unit in order to achieve the desired results:

Simple job changes.
Focus on equipment up-time.
Lot-for-lot production.
Increased flexibility.
No reduction of people.
Teamwork approach.
Operators and/or set-up people are focal point.
Videotape the process.

These activities, however, cannot be fully understood without building a foundation to support them. The "shoulders" which setup reduction rests upon can be divided into three main classifications -Customer Satisfaction, Lead Time and Total Cost Management. It should be noted here that although the terms set-up, changeover and make-ready are used by different industries, they are interchangeable in this book. The basic principles behind all three are identical and meet the same definition given above.

The Foundation Of Set-Up Reduction: Just as you wouldn't perform a set-up without the correct tools, so you shouldn't implement a set-up reduction program without the proper tools. Let's review the building blocks (which are in no particular order) in the foundation of a set-up reduction program.

Total Quality Control (TQC): TQC is not the inspection of parts to see whether they conform to requirements. It is better defined as the analysis of the processes and operations of a company in the manufacturing of components or material. Quality begins with designing tooling and defining the production process and goes through the process of set-up. We must address set-up scrap pieces and eliminate that waste.

Work-In-Process (WIP): There are different types of inventory in a plant: Purchased Material and Raw Material (from outside suppliers), Finished Goods, and WIP Inventory. Inventory is waste. It should be reduced through a program of lot size reduction. Setup reduction moves manufacturers toward a lot size of one. Ideally, once material arrives at a work station, equipment can be changed over quickly so that the material never has time to be in queue. The secret is to establish a set-up program early in the JIT/ TQC process. Don't get caught reducing lot size without reducing setup time as well. This also holds true for your suppliers. With a strong program in place, WIP inventory will soon virtually disappear.

By eliminating the economic impact of set-up or lot sizing, we can revise the practice of running large lot sizes for overhead absorption. Producing lot sizes in excess of customer requirements actually contributes inventory carrying costs to overhead which must be absorbed! If it sounds like a Catch 22 to you, you're right. In addition, excess inventory must be warehoused and warehousing is nothing more than transportation at zero velocity. Zero Inventory (ZI): Zero inventory means setting a level of inventory which is still able to meet customer demand. In many cases, zero is not zero, but the attainment of an acceptable level of inventory. Companies should continuously strive to improve themselves in their quest for this goal. We must make progress to get the inventory to the lowest level without disappointing customers or employees. We do not accomplish this overnight.

All too often, companies spend their valuable resources attempting to control inventory, rather than attempting to eliminate the causes for its existence. We should understand that most inventory exists because we don't know what we are doing. We don't know when purchased materials will be delivered, whether all parts will meet specifications, whether machinery will be operational, etc. In order to focus properly upon the valueadded nature of inventory, we should rename the inventory control department and call it the "I don't know what I'm doing" department.

Continuous Improvement Process (CIP): CIP is the process whereby companies strive for improvement, never being satisfied until they have improved the process. CIP is a key acronym in a set-up reduction program. It is almost synonymous with commitment. We often hear companies say that they are going to get a set-up program running in one year as though that is a long time. It is not a long time from a CIP perspective. For one thing, the statement implies that the program will be over one year after its starting date. Nothing is further from the truth. For committed companies, it will take many years to reach the goal of zero set-up time.

This doesn't mean that you won't get improvements in less than one year. It means that you aren't finished after those first few reductions. When we run up against this attitude that a company doesn't have to keep striving for improvement, we remind them of Toyota. Toyota started its JIT program in 1949. Are they finished yet? Absolutely not! At Kawasaki in Nebraska, they reduced the set-up time on a punch press from 45 minutes to 45 seconds. The last time we checked back, they were still looking at ways to improve. That' s commitment to CIP. Of course, the closer we get to zero, the harder the improvements come.

At some point, a company will need to make an investment in order to keep the reduction of set-up time moving forward. But, in the beginning, the only investment needed is an investment in people. Specifically, this investment means allowing people to review each set-up, to evaluate it and to come up with ideas about how to reduce the time it takes to change over.

Computer enthusiasts, by the way, will understand one of our favorite analogies. CIP is a"positive DO loop" from which a company never wishes to exit.

WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? (5Ws) Our goal is to find the low cost/no cost solution to reduce set-up times. People who participate on a team must be able to ask "Why?" many, many times to determine the cause of a problem. And whatever the response is to the first "Why?", they should then automatically ask "Why?" again. An organization must be open to communication that challenges the status quo. People should feel free to ask: Why do we do it that way? Why do we use these tools? Why don't we repair that equipment? Why? Why? Why?

Edition details

• Publisher: P T Pubns
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0945456042
• ISBN 13: 9780945456049
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 309