Setup Time Reduction for 5-Axis Composite Material’s Trimming Machine by Using a New Framework of SMED Integrated with ECSC Concept

Abstract

To survive in today’s competitive world; industries and manufacturers need to find ways and alternatives to reduce the production time and costs in order to boost the operating performance, product quality and flexibility. One of the alternatives is to reduce the setup time. For many decades, extensive attention has been given to the action of reducing the setup and changeover time and most of them are practicing the “famous” Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED), developed by Shigeo Shingo in 1960s. Despite that, many companies are still having problems in implementing the SMED because of there is no specific guideline to apply the method. This paper proposed a new framework of SMED with detailed steps to facilitate lean practitioner in implementing it. The new SMED framework will helps decision maker in choosing the best options whether to eliminate, combine, simplify or convert the setup activities from internal to external activities by applying Eliminate, Combine, Simplify and Convert (ECSC) concept. A case study in composite aircraft manufacturing company is used to exemplify the approach. The data analysis was presented to show the final results. The result validates the aptitudes of the proposed method in reducing the setup time.