Improving Changeover Performance

Improving Changeover Performance is essential reading for managers, engineers and improvement practitioners working in manufacturing industries. It will also prove invaluable to original equipment manufacturers and postgraduates and academic researchers alike.

Increasing importance is being placed on responsive, flexible manufacture in multi-product industrial environments. The ability to changeover production facilities both quickly and to a high standard is a key component of just-in-time and lean manufacturing paradigms, which are increasingly being adopted as businesses strive to compete in today's volatile and congested markets.

Currently industry frequently adopts the SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die) system, a well-established shop floor method to improve changeovers. This book takes a major step beyond the SMED system, by describing in much greater detail than hitherto the potential role of engineering design, of both substantive and non-substantive nature, to enhance changeovers. It also clearly sets out what better changeover performance can contribute to business competitiveness, and describes the many pitfalls that an improvement initiative can face.