Achieving quick change-over: Dream or reality?
Consider this example. A pair of newlyweds have returned from their honeymoon, and settle down to married life. After a little while, the husband discovers his wife has a peculiar system of organising her cooking schedule. When she prepares rabbit à...
Consider this example. A pair of newlyweds have returned from their honeymoon, and settle down to married life. After a little while, the husband discovers his wife has a peculiar system of organising her cooking schedule.
When she prepares rabbit à la Maltese, she cooks some eight rabbits in one go, one after the other. When she bakes timpana, she prepares a dozen trays. And when she cooks octopus in red wine, at least 10 large pans of octopus are prepared and cooked one after the other. In this way, the deep freezer is always well stocked.
The daily meal is delicious, but the husband still does not understand his wife's reasoning. When he asks her to explain, she answers that this is the best, most efficient way of cooking: in fact, once she is geared to prepare rabbit, the best way is to cook whatever quantity the family needs for approximately three months, which is a safe and convenient storage period in the deep freezer.
By doing so, she uses pots, pans and kitchen utensils only once, minimising washing and cleaning. She knows what is going to be required for the next 12 weeks, so why go to the trouble of baking a timpana every week, when it can be done in one go? Efficiency is key, she says: the same baking pan is used 12 times without washing it, and, most importantly, the oven is already warm, while letting it cool down would be a tremendous waste.
You may ask, what does this have to do with quick change-over and the manufacturing industry?
The answer is simple: a similar mentality as presented in the domestic example given is still present in many sectors of the manufacturing industry.
If one asks production managers what they consider difficult in production, the answer, nine times out of 10, is: "diversified, small-lots production". And if one asks them why this is difficult, invariably the answer is: "because of the frequent set-up activities required to produce a large variety of goods in small lots". Set-up (or "change-over") activities like die-changing, mould-changing, re-tooling, line setting and the like are seen as an unfortunate waste of time and resources by production personnel; just like the housewife in the story above who thinks it problematic and inefficient to do whatever is required to prepare a different meal every day.
The roots of this mentality are found in three misconceptions. Set-ups are difficult, problematic, and require particular skills, therefore the less set-ups we do, the better.
Set-ups are also time-consuming, and therefore producing in large lots somehow compensates the costly effects. And finally, since producing large lots generates excess stock (which also costs), there must be a way of optimising the two types of costs - set-up costs and stock costs. This is achieved by working per "economical lots", similar to the three months' stock of rabbit of our housewife.
The root cause of this mentality lies in over three decades' of confusion regarding the relationship between the market (demand) and the productive system (supply). The general tendency has been to mix up the features of demand (high volumes) with the features of supply (large lots). Only recently we have learned that the two concepts should be thoroughly separated, as a feature of demand cannot form the basis of the discipline of production.
If, in fact, high volumes are demanded by the market, and are also desirable in order to pay back the high costs of capital equipment, the supply side can still respond with a different style, basing production on numerous repetitions of small-lot productions and consequently remaining open and ready to a change in demand.
This is exactly what is happening nowadays, with customers wanting a more diversified range of products in smaller and more frequent lots.
Manufacturers that have understood the market change have reacted in a revolutionary mode: they have moved from the style of large-lots production of products that "should" sell to the style of "confirmed production", performed in small lots, based on orders actually received. This style of production is called "flow production", driven by customers and guided by their needs and expectations.
What is the main feature of such a revolution? A manufacturing system that is integrally responsive to market change, with minimal inherent waste, geared for quality and client-driven.
And what is the main "technical" secret of such a revolution? It is definitely in the set-up issue.
For years set-up and change-over operations have been considered a big problem in production, but still a marginal aspect of the manufacturing process.
Only in the last 10 to 15 years has this issue been addressed and its importance realised.
In fact, if set-ups took minutes to complete, presented little or no difficulties and became accomplishable with limited-skill personnel, the door to flow production opens wide: lead-times are minimised, stocks are decimated, bottlenecks are eliminated, and diversified/small-lot production, as market demands, becomes a reality.
Today, achieving quick change-over is possible and easy in practically all manufacturing contexts.
Tools and techniques are readily available for the purpose, all based on the famous single-minute-exchange-of-dies (SMED) system of Shigeo Shingo. Obviously the ideal set-up is no set-up at all.
But if set-up is to be done, this should be designed as a "one-touch" operation.
This is a reality which must be realised by today's manufacturing industry.
Carlo Scodanibbio will present a one-day course, Achieving Quick Change-Over, organised by the Malta Federation of Industry, on Thursday, October 9. For more details call the FOI directly on 2122 2074 or 2123 4428 or visit www.scodanibbio.com.
When she prepares rabbit à la Maltese, she cooks some eight rabbits in one go, one after the other. When she bakes timpana, she prepares a dozen trays. And when she cooks octopus in red wine, at least 10 large pans of octopus are prepared and cooked one after the other. In this way, the deep freezer is always well stocked.
The daily meal is delicious, but the husband still does not understand his wife's reasoning. When he asks her to explain, she answers that this is the best, most efficient way of cooking: in fact, once she is geared to prepare rabbit, the best way is to cook whatever quantity the family needs for approximately three months, which is a safe and convenient storage period in the deep freezer.
By doing so, she uses pots, pans and kitchen utensils only once, minimising washing and cleaning. She knows what is going to be required for the next 12 weeks, so why go to the trouble of baking a timpana every week, when it can be done in one go? Efficiency is key, she says: the same baking pan is used 12 times without washing it, and, most importantly, the oven is already warm, while letting it cool down would be a tremendous waste.
You may ask, what does this have to do with quick change-over and the manufacturing industry?
The answer is simple: a similar mentality as presented in the domestic example given is still present in many sectors of the manufacturing industry.
If one asks production managers what they consider difficult in production, the answer, nine times out of 10, is: "diversified, small-lots production". And if one asks them why this is difficult, invariably the answer is: "because of the frequent set-up activities required to produce a large variety of goods in small lots". Set-up (or "change-over") activities like die-changing, mould-changing, re-tooling, line setting and the like are seen as an unfortunate waste of time and resources by production personnel; just like the housewife in the story above who thinks it problematic and inefficient to do whatever is required to prepare a different meal every day.
The roots of this mentality are found in three misconceptions. Set-ups are difficult, problematic, and require particular skills, therefore the less set-ups we do, the better.
Set-ups are also time-consuming, and therefore producing in large lots somehow compensates the costly effects. And finally, since producing large lots generates excess stock (which also costs), there must be a way of optimising the two types of costs - set-up costs and stock costs. This is achieved by working per "economical lots", similar to the three months' stock of rabbit of our housewife.
The root cause of this mentality lies in over three decades' of confusion regarding the relationship between the market (demand) and the productive system (supply). The general tendency has been to mix up the features of demand (high volumes) with the features of supply (large lots). Only recently we have learned that the two concepts should be thoroughly separated, as a feature of demand cannot form the basis of the discipline of production.
If, in fact, high volumes are demanded by the market, and are also desirable in order to pay back the high costs of capital equipment, the supply side can still respond with a different style, basing production on numerous repetitions of small-lot productions and consequently remaining open and ready to a change in demand.
This is exactly what is happening nowadays, with customers wanting a more diversified range of products in smaller and more frequent lots.
Manufacturers that have understood the market change have reacted in a revolutionary mode: they have moved from the style of large-lots production of products that "should" sell to the style of "confirmed production", performed in small lots, based on orders actually received. This style of production is called "flow production", driven by customers and guided by their needs and expectations.
What is the main feature of such a revolution? A manufacturing system that is integrally responsive to market change, with minimal inherent waste, geared for quality and client-driven.
And what is the main "technical" secret of such a revolution? It is definitely in the set-up issue.
For years set-up and change-over operations have been considered a big problem in production, but still a marginal aspect of the manufacturing process.
Only in the last 10 to 15 years has this issue been addressed and its importance realised.
In fact, if set-ups took minutes to complete, presented little or no difficulties and became accomplishable with limited-skill personnel, the door to flow production opens wide: lead-times are minimised, stocks are decimated, bottlenecks are eliminated, and diversified/small-lot production, as market demands, becomes a reality.
Today, achieving quick change-over is possible and easy in practically all manufacturing contexts.
Tools and techniques are readily available for the purpose, all based on the famous single-minute-exchange-of-dies (SMED) system of Shigeo Shingo. Obviously the ideal set-up is no set-up at all.
But if set-up is to be done, this should be designed as a "one-touch" operation.
This is a reality which must be realised by today's manufacturing industry.
Carlo Scodanibbio will present a one-day course, Achieving Quick Change-Over, organised by the Malta Federation of Industry, on Thursday, October 9. For more details call the FOI directly on 2122 2074 or 2123 4428 or visit www.scodanibbio.com.