Reducing downtime of bottleneck capacities at Akzo Nobel “Business

`Keep the Machines up and Running`

Reducing downtime of bottleneck capacities at Akzo Nobel “Business

Unit X”

Anton Breukelman

2

`Keep the Machines up and Running`

Reducing downtime of bottleneck capacities at Akzo Nobel “Business

Unit X”

Committee

Akzo Nobel “Business Unit X”

K. Dijkstra T. Straver R. de Haas

University of Groningen Prof. Dr. J. Wijngaard Dr. Ir. D.J. van der Zee

Author University of Groningen Faculty of Management and Organization December 2004

Anton Breukelman

The author is responsible for the content of

this thesis; copyright of this thesis belongs to

the author ©

3

Summary

In the course of time, Western European countries like the Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain have become more and more expensive as a location for manufacturing companies. When looking at Eastern European countries like Estonia, Poland and Hungary, average cost per liter (paint) is almost 3 times lower compared to the Netherlands.

The strategy of Akzo Nobel “Business Unit X” focuses on Operational Excellence. This focus reveals itself within the Production & Logistics column in a campaign called ‘Star Trek.’ Two of the Star Trek Key Performance Indicators are Stocks and Costs.

The (too) high stock level of the Lacquer Unit (LU) - “Town A”, the Netherlands is partly caused by the production of large standard batch sizes. Next to inventory costs, direct costs for personnel is an important cost factor.

In order to increase the ability of producing smaller standard batch sizes while maintaining Service Level and in order to increase the ability of producing the same output with less capacity (higher efficiency rate), the central research question for this thesis was formulated as follows:

“In what way can the processes of the LU be adjusted in order to reduce downtime of bottleneck capacities?”

In order to give an answer on this central research question, two separate projects were carried out in the LU. The 1

project was called Fillpower and aimed to reduce setup time for the LU filling machines. The 2

project aimed to reduce downtime during the filling operation.

Project Fillpower: Reduction of setup time

The project team followed 7 steps to reduce setup time of the LU filling machines. The 1

step was the introduction of the well known Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) technique to the project team members.

After that, during the 2

step, the setup process was filmed and represented schematically in a GANNT-chart. Filming the setup process indicated that the carrying out of a setup process takes on average 30 minutes. For the LU this means that the total setup time per week is around 55 hours (110 filling batches). This means that over 34% of the total process time is downtime because of setup processes.

In step 3, Inside Exchange of Dies (IED) activities were separated from the Outside Exchange of Dies (OED) activities. The Facilitator (student) analyzed the setup process together with the help of the Filling Department operators. The setup process that was subject of the analysis took exactly 1 hour to perform by 1 operator. After the analysis, it appeared that more than 45 minutes of those activities were potential OED-activities. Less than 4 minutes of activities need to be carried out by the filling operator and the remaining 11 minutes are eligible for parallellization.

In the 4

and 5

step of the project, improvement ideas were generated and the Facilitator redesigned the setup process together with the Filling Department operators. Next to technical improvement ideas, several organizational improvement ideas were generated. The members of the Project Team decided that the best opportunity for reducing the setup time to the target of 10 minutes was by starting working with 3 filling lines instead of 4 and by using the ‘overcapacity’ of operators to accelerate the IED-activities by parallellization. In a later phase, the 4

filling machine will be used to move complete setup processes to OED.

In step 6 and 7, the setup process was standardized by creating activity schemes and by making agreements about running through the PDCA management loop.

Due to project Fillpower, average setup time in the LU filling department decreased to approximately 11-12 minutes. Efficiency increased during the project to a maximum of 34.6% (average per week).

The LU now produces around 145 filling batches per week and stock value decreased some 2 million

Euro.

4 Reduction of downtime during the operation

The project team went through 3 phases to reduce downtime during the filling operation. In phase 1, the Facilitator carried out downtime studies to determine the relative impact of pre defined downtime categories on total downtime. The total net time of downtime studies was approximately 9 hours. Of that total time, 3 hours and 43 minutes was downtime caused by the pre defined downtime categories.

A Pareto analysis showed that 6 of the 16 downtime categories were responsible for almost 70% of the total downtime. These ‘vital few’ downtime categories are:

• Settings filling machine

• Malfunction Avery

• No staff

• Speed manual packaging

• No tins

• Malfunction box packaging machine

In an in dept analysis, the Facilitator analyzed the constraints behind these ‘vital few’ together with the filling department operators. The constraints are of both technical and organizational nature. The main adjustments that could be implemented in the 3

phase were:

• Set up the filling machines at the maximum speed for each item, taking into account the aspects of quality (E-sign) and viscosity.

• Reallocations of operators in case of manually stacking 2.5 liter products by the Trainee and Assistant Group Leader in such a way that 2 operators become available for manual stacking.

• Arrangements with operators about replacement during mini-breaks like smoking and toilet breaks.

• Adjust the height of tin-guides in such a way (3 cm lower) that the handles of the 2.5 liter items no longer hook on to them.

• Collect boxes and batch numbers of poor quality in order to make arrangements with the supplier.

If we compare the productivity of the LU after the implementation of the improvement opportunities

with the productivity of the initial situation we see that the productivity is considerably higher. Week

32 and 40 are absolute records. In week 30 to 36 the productivity was above 150 liters/man-hour: this

series is a record.

5

Preface

The Msc. course ‘Production & Service Management’ of the University of Groningen, faculty of Management & Organization has to be concluded with a graduation project. The final thesis that lies in front of you is the result of my graduation project that started in March 2004 at the Akzo Nobel

“Business Unit X” production site in “Town A”, The Netherlands.

The research focuses on downtime reduction of filling machines in the Lacquer Unit Lacquer Unit.

I would like to thank both Akzo Nobel “Business Unit X” and the University of Groningen for offering me this opportunity. Klaas Dijkstra, Ton Straver and Reinout de Haas have given me a lot of support, advice and useful comments throughout the project. Professor Wijngaard has provided me with a lot of straightforward criticism and advice.

Further, I would like to thank all the employees of the Lacquer Unit - Filling Department for their cooperation in this project. Special thanks to Arie Hogendoorn, who was always willing to answer all of my questions.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents who supported me both emotionally and financially throughout the years it took me to complete this Msc. course.

Kampen, December 2004 Anton Breukelman

6

Table of contents

SUMMARY PREFACE

INTRODUCTION --- 8

1 ORGANIZATION --- 9

1.1 I NTRODUCTION TO A KZO N OBEL --- 9

1.2 “B USINESS U NIT X” --- 10

1.3 P RODUCTION & L OGISTICS “T OWN A” --- 10

1.4 S ECTOR L ACQUER U NIT (LU) --- 11

1.4.1 Organizational structure LU --- 11

1.4.2 Filling Department --- 12

1.4.3 Filling Department organization --- 12

1.5 P AINT MANUFACTURING PROCESS --- 13

1.6 O VERVIEW --- 14

2 METHODOLOGY--- 15

2.1 P ROBLEM CONTEXT --- 15

2.2 P ROBLEM DEFINITION --- 16

2.2.1 Problem definition: objective--- 17

2.2.2 Problem definition: central research question --- 17

2.2.3 Problem definition: conditions that limit the scope of the project --- 17

2.2.4 Sub-questions--- 17

2.2.5 Definitions --- 18

2.3 R ESEARCH PLAN , METHODS AND TECHNIQUES --- 18

2.3.1 Research plan --- 18

2.3.2 Methods and techniques --- 19

3 INITIAL SITUATION --- 20

3.1 LU PRIMARY PROCESS --- 20

3.2 LU P LANNING & C ONTROL --- 21

3.2.1 Planning --- 21

3.2.2 Short term control --- 21

3.3 S ETUP PROCESS : FILLING OPERATION --- 22

3.3.1 Cyclic scheduling --- 22

3.3.2 Setup activities --- 22

3.4 E FFICIENCY --- 23

4 SETUP TIME REDUCTION --- 25

4.1 P ROJECT DESCRIPTION --- 26

4.1.1 Step 1: Introduction of the SMED-technique --- 26

4.1.2 Step 2: Measurement of the total setup time--- 27

4.1.3 Step 3: Separating IED-activities from OED-activities --- 28

4.1.4 Step 4 and 5: Converting IED-activities in OED-activities, moving OED-activities out of the setup process and accelerating IED-activities--- 29

4.1.5 Step 6 and 7: Standardizing the setup process and sustain the new method of working32 4.2 C ONCLUSIONS & R ECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE --- 33

4.2.1 Conclusions--- 33

4.2.2 Recommendations for the future --- 34

5 REDUCTION OF DOWNTIME DURING OPERATION--- 35

5.1 P ROJECT DESCRIPTION --- 36

5.1.1 Diagnosis phase--- 36

7

5.1.2 Design phase --- 37

5.1.3 Change phase --- 37

5.2 C ONCLUSIONS & R ECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE --- 39

5.2.1 Conclusions--- 39

5.2.2 Recommendations for the future --- 39

6 SUSTAINING PERFORMANCE--- 41

6.1 S USTAINABILITY - CYCLE – I MPROVEMENT - CYCLE --- 41

6.1.1 Sustainability-Cycle --- 41

6.1.2 Improvement-Cycle --- 42

6.2 D ISTURBING FORCES --- 43

6.2.1 Filling operators --- 43

6.2.2 (Assistant) Group Leader vs. Batch size --- 43

7 CONCLUSION --- 44

7.1 C ENTRAL RESEARCH QUESTION --- 44

7.1.1 Reduction of Setup time --- 44

7.1.2 Reduction of Downtime during the Operation --- 44

7.1.3 Relation of results to problem context--- 45

7.2 C RITICAL REVIEW --- 45

7.3 G ENERALIZATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH --- 46

7.3.1 Generalization of research process and results--- 46

7.3.2 Recommendations for further research --- 46

BIBLIOGRAPHY--- 47

Appendixes

1.1 Deco vision, mission, focus points and values 1.2 Organizational structure “BU X” P&L 1.3 Organizational Structure P&L “Town A”

1.4 Layout Filling Department 2.1 LU flow of materials 3.1 Filling lines LU

4.1 Theoretical concepts and “BU X” practices for reduction of setup time 4.2 Activities Step 1

4.3 Activities Step 2 4.4 Activities Step 3 4.5 Activities Step 4 and 5 4.6 Redesigned setup process 4.7 Activities Step 6 and 7

5.1 Theoretical concepts and Akzo Nobel “BU X” practices for reduction of downtime during the operation

5.2 Activities diagnosis phase 5.3 Pareto downtime

5.4 In depth analysis: constraints 5.5 Activities design phase 5.6 Design

5.7 Activities change phase

8

Introduction

In the course of time, Western European countries like the Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain have become more and more expensive as a location for manufacturing companies. When looking at Eastern European countries like Estonia, Poland and Hungary, average cost per liter (paint) is almost 3 times lower compared to the Netherlands.

The Production & Logistics staff of Akzo Nobel “Business Unit X” production site “Town A”

acknowledges the need for radical improvement to secure the continuity of the location and is putting a lot of effort in improving performance to reduce costs.

In the period before and in parallel to the execution of this graduation project, a project with the objective to reduce Stock level (and eventually, costs) of finished products was executed.

Data analysis for the Lacquer Unit showed that the stock level of finished products represented a considerable value. This so called overstock is mainly caused by large standard batch sizes.

To lower the stock level of finished products, the Lacquer Unit needs to produce smaller batches.

However, producing smaller batches means that setup time will increase and that efficiency will decrease. A decrease of efficiency means an increase of costs.

As we will see in the course of this thesis, the cost problems of the Lacquer Unit have a distinct relationship with time. Therefore, this thesis will focus on the reduction of downtime of the filling machines in the Lacquer Unit. Setup time will be reduced by using the Japanese- Single Minute Exchange of Dies- (SMED) technique. Next to the reduction of setup time, this thesis will focus on the reduction of downtime during the filling operation.

Chapter 1 will give an introduction of the organization in which this graduation project is executed.

We will shortly discuss the organization of Akzo Nobel and the Business Unit “Business Unit X”.

After that, we will zoom in until we reach the organization of the Lacquer Unit-Filling Department.

In chapter 2 we will discuss the methodology that is used as a guideline for this thesis. We will go into the context of the problem and into the problem definition.

Chapter 3 will go into the initial situation of the elements that will be influenced by this graduation project. The Lacquer Unit primary process as well as the Planning & Control will be discussed.

Furthermore, we will give the reader a clear image of the Filling Department.

After that, chapter 4 will give a description of project ‘Fillpower’ that aims to reduce setup time of the filling machines. Finally, the setup process will be redesigned by the Facilitator (student) and the operators of the Filling Department.

Chapter 5 describes the project that aims to reduce downtime during the filling operation. We will discuss the results of downtime studies that have been executed. Some of the filling operation process will be redesigned by the Facilitator and the Filling Department operators.

In chapter 6 we will pay attention to sustainability. A tool to sustain the achieved performance will be discussed as well as some ‘disturbing’ forces on which the Advanced Tinting Department Sector Leader should focus.

Finally, in chapter 7 we will relate the results of the projects to the central research question that will

be formulated in chapter 2. Also, we will critically review the redesigned processes.

9

1 Organization

‘Reducing downtime of bottleneck capacities at Akzo Nobel “Town A”,’ is the sub-title of this thesis.

Obviously, we cannot start immediately with reducing downtime. The aim of this chapter is to introduce the reader into the organisation of Akzo Nobel “Town A”. First, we will place the organisation where this thesis is written in a broader context. Therefore, we will introduce Akzo Nobel in paragraph 1.1. Paragraph 1.2 will shortly discuss the Akzo Nobel Business Unit “Business Unit X”.

Also, the Production & Logistics organisation of that Business Unit will be discussed. After that, we will discuss the Production & Logistics organisation of “Town A” and the Product Mix in paragraph 1.3. Paragraph 1.4 will go into the organisational structure of the Lacquer Unit. After discussing the organisational aspects of the organisation we will globally discuss the production process of paint in paragraph 1.5.

1.1 Introduction to Akzo Nobel

Based in the Netherlands, Akzo Nobel serves customers throughout the world with healthcare products, coatings and chemicals. Akzo’s global activities are organized into a decentralized business unit structure and are divided into three distinct groups: Pharma, Coatings and Chemicals. The company has subsidiaries in more than 80 countries, which in 2003 employed over 66.000 people.

Sales in 2003 were € 13.1 billion, with Pharma accounting for € 3.54 billion (27 %), Coatings for € 5.24 (40%) and Chemicals for € 4.32 billion (33%). Each group consists of several Business Units which are depicted in table 1.

The business units of these groups have considerable freedom within the broad strategic framework of the company and report directly to the Board of Management.

Pharma Coatings Chemicals

Organon “Business Unit X” Pulp & Paper Chemicals Intervet Decorative Coatings International Functional Chemicals

Diosynth Industrial Finishes Surface Chemistry

Powder Coatings Base Chemicals

Car Refinishes Polymer Chemicals

Marine & Protective Coatings Resins

Industrial Products Catalysts

Salt

Energy

Table 1.1 Business Units Akzo Nobel

The Pharma group produces prescription drugs, veterinary products and complex active pharmaceutical ingredients. With Organon Akzo is among the world top suppliers in the prescription drugs sector. Intervet is the third largest world supplier of veterinary products and leading in veterinary vaccines and Diosynth is the leading supplier of steroids and synthetic peptides.

The Coatings group produces paints, finishes and stains for industrial, transport and marine markets, as well as the ‘do it yourself’ and professional decorating sectors. The Coatings group is the world’s leading coatings company. The Coatings group plays a leading role in the consolidation of the fragmented world coatings market in which Coatings, as world leader, has only 8% market share.

The Chemicals group produces specification, functional and specialty chemicals. Almost all the

business units have leading or strong worldwide positions.

10 1.2 “Business Unit X”

Decorative Coatings is supplier of coatings for decoration and protection of architectural structures and is market leader in Europe. It has a broad product range with strong brands which include Sikkens, Flexa, Sadolin, Crown, Astral, Marshall, Trimetal, Nordsjö, Levis, Herbol and Vivechrom. Decorative Coatings is split into two business units in which “Business Unit X” (“BU X”) serves the saturated Western European markets and Decorative Coatings International (DCI) serves the growing markets outside of Europe and in Eastern Europe.

“Business Unit X”, headquartered in Sassenheim the Netherlands, is active in all Western European countries with 13 production locations and 18 distribution centers. The “BU X” vision, mission and values can be found in Appendix 1.1

The organizational structure can be described as a matrix structure. The matrix approach utilizes functional and divisional chains of command simultaneously in the same part of the organisation (Daft, 2001). In figure 1.1 the functional hierarchy of authority runs vertically and the geographic- based divisional hierarchy of authority runs laterally.

Figure 1.1 Organizational structure “BU X”

The organizational structure of “BU X” Production & Logistics colomn is depicted in Appendix 1.2 1.3 Production & Logistics “Town A”

Within Production & Logistics “Town A” there are 3 production sectors. These are: the Lacquer Unit (LU), the Wall Paint plant (WP) and the Multicolor plant (MC). Next to these production sectors there are 3 other sectors: Distribution Centre/ Raw Material Warehouse (1), Maintenance Service (2) and (3) Logistic Planning Center. This structure of P&L “Town A” is schematically represented in Appendix 1.3

The LU produces relatively small batches of solvent born lacquers and stains. Batches are kept small

to keep inventory level low. Most of these items are produced with semi-finished items from stock.

11 The production unit is characterised by a relative large complexity in raw materials, recipes and production facilities.

The sector WP produces relatively large batches of items that have a high turnover rate. Complexity is low and almost all items are directly produced from raw materials. In the MC sector the production process is mainly controlled by Make to Order. The production process is complex and the produced volume is low.

Sector Number of SKU’s

LU 1853

Wall Paint 312

MultiColor 388 Total 2553 Table 1.2 Product Mix

1.4 Sector Lacquer Unit (LU)

As mentioned before, production in “Town A” takes place in 3 production sectors: the LU, Wall Paint and MultiColor plant. In this paragraph we will go into the organisational structure of the LU. The project that is subject of this thesis will be carried out in the Filling Department of that sector. After the organisational structure of the LU we will discuss the Filling Department and the tasks of the operators who work there.

1.4.1 Organizational structure LU

A production sector is responsible for the total achieved performance, such as service levels, inventory levels, lead-times, costs and budget. This means that the sector itself is able to influence these matters.

The LU employs some 40 persons and the organisation can be sketched as follows:

Figure 1.2 Organisational Structure LU

The Sector Leader directs the Group Leader who for his part directs 1 Trainee Group Leader and 1 Assistant Group Leader. The Trainee and Assistant Group Leader lead the production, filling, printing and PM warehouse operators. The Process Technologist is responsible for quality control. Although premature quality inspections are executed by production operators the final inspection is performed by workers of PT/QC. Maintenance Service is functionally managed by the Group Leader based on priority rules set up by the Sector Leader. The Production Planner along with the Group Leader is responsible for the daily operational management and progress of the workload within the sector in which the Production Planner decides what and when needs to be produced and the Group Leader on which machinery and with which operators. The Material Planner makes sure that al the required

SL

PT/QC MS

GL PP & MP

Production

(Fabrication &

Filling)

PM Warehouse

&

Printing

SL Sector Leader PT/QC Process Technology/

Quality Control

MS Maintenance Service GL Group Leader PP & MP Production Planner &

Material Planner

PM Packaging Material

12 materials are available for production. A close harmony between the Production Planner (mid term planning) and Material Planner (short term scheduling) is desired for a smooth progress of production.

1.4.2 Filling Department

The Filling Department of the LU transfers finished product from a certain tank to the different packaging materials. This is done with the help of Filling Machines. A Filling machine pumps paint from a (production) tank into a funnel (hopper). From the hopper the finished product is pumped into a tin. After pressing a lid on the tin the tin is trayed in plastic or packed in boxes.

The created finished product can be divided in ready mixed (RM) paints and in mixing machine (MM) paint. The RM products are already made in the right colour while MM products still need to be colour mixed before it is used by the end user. This is usually done at wholesalers and retailers.

The Filling Department of the LU has 4 filling machines at its disposal. In line with the filling machines, 5 packaging stations are available:

• 1 Automatic box-packaging machine;

• 3 Tray-machines;

• 1 manual box-packaging unit.

The 4 filling machines are able to produce for each of the packaging stations. The layout of the Filling Department is depicted in Appendix 1.4

1.4.3 Filling Department organization

In general, each filling line employs 2 operators: 1 Filling Operator and 1 Packaging Operator. The Filling Operator is responsible for the filling process. In practice this means that he carries out the setup of the filling machine and that he is responsible for the quality of the discrete products (that is, the aspects that can be influenced by the operator). At the end of the filling line there is the Packaging Operator. These operators are responsible for the preparation (setup) of the packaging machines and for manually stacking trays or boxes with discrete products on pallets.

Next to the Filling and Packaging operators the Filling Department employs 2 so called Steerers.

These operators remove full pallets from the shopfloor, pump out pipes and carry out the last adjustments to the finished products. Another important task of the Steerers is transporting mobile tanks with paint to the shopfloor and connecting immobile tanks to the filling machines.

Finally, the Trainee Group Leader and the Assistant Group Leader are the employees that coordinate the tasks of the operators of the Filling Department. In scheme:

Figure 1.3 Organisational structure Filling Department LU

Trainee Group Leader

&

Assistant Group Leader

Steerers

Filling Operators Packaging Operators

13 1.5 Paint manufacturing process

The major raw materials used to manufacture paint are resins, solvents, pigments, extender pigments and additives.

• Resins: This is a composed raw material in which 30 to 40 percent solvent is incorporated.

Usually more than 50% of paint consists of resin.

• Pigments: Pigments are dry parts and are used to produce all kinds of colours. White pigment takes care of the covering power while coloured pigments see to it that the right colours are formed. For transparent paint very little pigment is added.

• Solvents: Solvent (30-35 percent of paint) is used to get the paint to the right thickness (viscosity). Organic solvents or water are used.

• Additives: These substances are applied in small quatities and see to it that negative characteristics are prevented and that the positive characteristics are stimulated. Examples are anti-mildew means and dryers.

• Extenders: These are relative cheap, powder formed raw materials that for instance have effect on the gloss level and scratch firmness of the paint. Depending on the kind of paint there are various quantities added.

Due to constantly changing environmental legislation, the compostion of paint shows changes in the course of time. One of the last developments is the so called ‘high solid’ solvent-borne paint. This means that less solvent is used in the paint. Also, solvent-borne paint is more often replaced by water- borne paint.

The paint industry can be classified as a semi-process industry producing batchwize. A common characteristic for these semi-process industries is the presence of a process stage and a packaging stage: each having distinct attributes. The production process is subdivided in a couple of separate activities and is specified in the following table. The focus of this thesis will be on the 6

stage.

Table 1.3 Standard production process of paint (Kooistra, 1991)

14 1.6 Overview

Now we have introduced the organization that is subject of this thesis, chapter 2 will go into the

methodology that will be used to carry out this research and to write this thesis. Chapter 3 will discuss

the initial situation of those elements that will be influenced by the projects that will be described in

this thesis. Chapter 4 and 5 will give an eleborate description of 2 projects that have been executed in

the LU Filling Department. After that, chapter 6 will discuss some measures to sustain the achieved

performance. Finally, this thesis is concluded with conclusions and recommendations in chapter 7.

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2 Methodology

This chapter will go into the methodology that has been used to work out the project at Akzo Nobel Decorative Coating Europe (“BU X”) properly. The used methodology functioned as a guideline throughout the project.

Paragraph 2.1 will go into the context of the problem which is subject of this thesis. The problem definition will be discussed in paragraph 2.2. We will go into the objective, the central research question and the conditions that limit the scope of the project. After that, sub-questions that need to be answered in order to get an answer on the central research question will be worked out. Also, an overview of the definitions that will be used in the thesis will be given. Further, paragraph 2.3 will discuss the used research plan, methods and techniques.

2.1 Problem context

In the course of time, Western European countries like the Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain have become more and more expensive as a location for manufacturing companies. When looking at Eastern European countries like Estonia, Poland and Hungary, average cost per liter (paint) is almost 3 times lower compared to the Netherlands.

The strategy of the “BU X” business unit focuses on Operational Excellence. This focus reveals itself within the Production & Logistics column in a campaign called ‘Star Trek.’ Start Trek aims to make radical steps in improvement rather than incremental improvement steps. The objective is to become a World class manufacturer with a World class Supply Chain.

Start Trek distinguishes several Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s):

• Service Levels;

• Costs;

• Stocks;

• Quality (Paint, Process);

• HSE (Housekeeping, Waste, Lost Time Injuries, Plant Hygiene).

To improve performance on these 5 KPI’s, 7 Star Trek basic principles were formulated:

• Continuous improvement;

• No product is made until it is really needed;

• Ban all types of ‘waste’ (especially wasted time) and strive for perfection;

• Employees are an integral part of our business and not extensions of machines;

• Quality is designed in the process and not inspected in;

• Inventory hides problems;

• Clear target setting on real performance measures.

P&L “Town A” acknowledges the need for radical improvement to secure the continuity of the location and is putting a lot of effort in improving the performance on the KPI’s listed above by following the 7 Star Trek basic principles. In the period before and in parallel to the carrying out of the project that is subject of this thesis, a project with the objective to reduce Stock level (and eventually, costs) of finished products was executed.

In the course of the Stock Reduction project, data analysis for the LU “Town A” showed that in total

there was approximately 225.000 KG overstock. In total this overstock represents a considerable

value. From the 225.000 KG overstock, almost 61.000 KG is caused by large (standard) batch sizes

that can be produced more efficiently than smaller batches. This is because producing smaller batches

means that more setup processes need to be carried out and that efficiency will decrease. A decrease of

efficiency means an increase of costs. Figure 2.1 shows cost curves as a function of batch size.

16

0 2 0 0 4 0 0 6 0 0 8 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 4 0 0 1 6 0 0

5 0 1 0 0 1 5 0 2 0 0 2 5 0 3 0 0 3 5 0 4 0 0 4 5 0 5 0 0 B a tc h s iz e

Costs S e tu p C o s t

In v e n to ry C o s t T o ta l C o s t

Figure 2.1 Cost curves as a function of batch size

The figure above shows that producing smaller batches has a positive effect on Inventory costs, but a negative effect on Setup costs and on Total costs. Therefore, in order to increase the ability of producing smaller batches with equal efficiency rates to lower the costs of Inventory, setup time in the Filling Department of the LU has to be reduced.

Reducing setup time without decreasing batch size will lead to an increased efficiency. An increased efficiency rate enables the LU to produce more output with the same capacity or, to produce the same output with less capacity.

Customer demand for the products that are produced by the LU is not increasing. Therefore, an increased efficiency rate will not be used to produce more output, but an increased efficiency rate will be used to produce the same level of output with less capacity. This means that less operators and machines are needed, which means a decrease of direct costs and Total costs.

In order to increase the efficiency of the filling operation in the Filling Department of the LU, downtime during the filling operation must be reduced. In principle, this means that all the matters that disturb the filling processes of the LU have to be eliminated.

It is clear that the problems of setup time and efficiency of the filling operation are eventually related to Costs. However, the essence of these problems is strongly related to time. Therefore, in the remaining part of this thesis we will use the term downtime if we speak about setup time and downtime during the filling operation together.

From the description of the problem context we can conclude that the cost problems of the LU are in the area of Machine Logistics. In the remaining part of this thesis the problems will be discussed in the form of 2 separate projects: (1) reduction of setup time to increase the ability of producing smaller batches and (2) reduction of downtime during the filling operation in order to increase efficiency. This enables the LU to produce the same output with less capacity.

Problems in the area of Machine Logistics mean that one has to study the business processes on the shop floor in great detail. Understanding, analyzing and redesigning the business processes will not succeed without the participation of the operators. Therefore, an important feature of the projects that will be executed is the intensive participation of the LU Filling Department operators. In both projects that will be described in this thesis the operators will be involved in a so called participative diagnosis.

Also, the operators are involved in redesigning their own business processes. In the course of this thesis we will make clear how the operators were kept involved.

2.2 Problem definition

According to de Leeuw (de Leeuw, 2001), a problem definition consists of 3 components:

• Objective;

17

• Central research question;

• Conditions that limit the scope of the project.

In this section we will discuss the filling in of these components for this thesis. Also, we will work out sub-questions that need to be answered in order to get an answer on the central research question.

After that, we will outline the definitions that will be used in this thesis.

2.2.1 Problem definition: objective

The 1

component of the problem definition for this thesis is the objective of the 2 projects that will be executed in the LU Filling Department. Considering the context that was described above, the objective for these projects was formulated as follows:

• The projects will result in adjusted processes for the LU Filling Department. The new method of working will result in less downtime for the LU bottleneck capacities.

2.2.2 Problem definition: central research question

The 2

component of the problem definition is the central research question. The answer on this question will be given by answering sub-questions that will be discussed later in this paragraph. The central research question for this thesis is:

“In what way can the processes of the LU be adjusted in order to reduce downtime of bottleneck capacities?”

In the case of the LU, the filling machines are treated as bottleneck capacities. In practice, this means that the filling machines determine the time it takes to produce a certain level of output. This bottleneck position is illustrated by the flow of materials (Appendix 2.1). The LU Filling Department is the point where all materials (working capital) come together.

2.2.3 Problem definition: conditions that limit the scope of the project

The 3

and last component of the problem definition consists of the conditions that limit the scope of the project. In this case, the limitation is that the focus of the research will only be on the processes of the Filling Department of the LU “Town A”. Another important limitation is that downtime of the bottleneck capacities must be reduced without large investments in resources.

2.2.4 Sub-questions

In order to get an answer on the central research question, 8 sub-questions have been formulated. Sub- questions 1 through 5 are related to the reduction of downtime between the filling operations of the Filling Department and are derived from the Japanese Single Minute Exchange of Dies-technique.

This technique will be explained in chapter 4. This form of downtime will be referred to as setup time.

These sub-questions will be answered in the project that will be discussed in chapter 4 of this thesis.

Sub-questions 6 through 8 are related to downtime during the filling operation itself and will be answered in the project that will be discussed in chapter 5 of this thesis.

1. Out of which sub-processes does the setup process consist?

2. Which sub-processes can be converted from Inside Exchange of Dies into Outside Exchange of Dies?

3. How can the remaining Inside Exchange of Dies- activities be accelerated?

4. In what way is it possible to make the setup process controllable?

5. How can the ‘best practice’ in setup be sustained?

18 6. What are causes of downtime during the operation?

7. Which measures should be taken to take away the downtime causes during the operation?

8. In what way can the new method of working be implemented?

2.2.5 Definitions

In this section definitions that will be frequently used in this thesis are outlined.

Setup time

Setup time is defined as the time it takes to go from the production of the last good piece of a prior run to the first good piece of a new production run. Setup, therefore, not only includes changing fixtures, dies, and/or tooling, but also teardown, cleanup, inspection, trial runs, and any material handling, administrative work, idle time, etc. that occurs between the production of good parts (Trevino et al, 1993).

Downtime during the operation

Downtime during the operation means that the bottleneck capacities in the Filling Department of the LU are not running or, are running at lower speed than the Optimum Speed at the moments that they should be running (at Optimum Speed).

Overall Equipment Efficiency (O.E.E) OEE = Optimum Time/ Actual Time

Optimum Time = Output Produced/ Bottleneck Speed 2.3 Research plan, methods and techniques

This paragraph will go into the research plan, methods and techniques that will be used to get an answer on the sub-questions that have been formulated in paragraph 2.2. Section 2.3.1 will shortly discuss the research plan that will be used to answer the sub-questions. Section 2.3.2 will discuss methods and techniques that will be used to get an answer on the formulated sub-questions.

2.3.1 Research plan

To answer the formulated sub-questions and eventually the central research question, it was decided to carry out 2 more or less separate projects. There was chosen for 2 separate projects because of the nature of downtime. We stated earlier that downtime can be separated in both setup time and in downtime during the operation. Focusing on 1 of these elements per project enables the project team to isolate the particular processes from the other processes and to solve the problems in a more effective manner.

As is the case for all projects that are aiming to improve business processes, both projects will roughly run through 3 phases:

1. Diagnosis 2. Design 3. Change

Sub-questions 1 through 5 are the questions that will be answered in the project that aims to reduce

setup time in the LU. Sub-questions 1 and 2 belong two the Diagnosis phase. Sub-question 3 is part of

the Design phase of the project. Finally, sub-questions 4 and 5 are part of the Change/Implementation

phase.

19 Sub-questions 6 through 8 are formulated to be answered in the 2

project that aims to reduce downtime during the filling operation of the LU. Sub-question 6 typically belongs to the Diagnosis phase and questions 7 and 8 belong to both the Design and Change phase.

2.3.2 Methods and techniques

The methods and techniques that will be used to answer the sub-questions of this thesis have been obtained by answering so called methodological questions. This means that for each sub-question a methodological question was formulated. The answer on this methodological question is a method/

technique that will be used to answer the corresponding sub-question.

In practice, we will translate these methods and techniques into activities that need to be done to answer the sub-questions. These activities will be discussed in chapters 4 and 5.

Table 2.1 shows the methods and techniques that will be used to answer the sub-questions. We discussed earlier that an important feature of the projects is the participative diagnosis and the intensive participation of the Filling Department operators. This is emphasized by the methods and techniques in table 2.1

Sub-question Method/ technique

1. Out of which sub-processes does the setup process consist?

-Videotaping the setup process

-Represent schematically in a GANNT-chart 2. Which sub-processes can be converted

from Inside Exchange of Dies (IED) into Outside Exchange of Dies (OED)?

-Form a project team according to the Akzo Nobel project team structure

-Use the SMED-technique by answering

‘changeover questions nr. 1 and 2.’ Questions to be answered with the help of operators 3. How can the remaining IED-activities be

accelerated?

-Brainstorm sessions, answering ‘changeover questions nr. 3 and 4.’ Include operators in brainstorm sessions.

4. In what way is it possible to make the setup process controllable?

-Make a standard procedure for the carrying out of a setup process. Make procedures in participation with operators

5. How can the ‘best practice’ in setup be sustained?

-Use the PDCA-cycle. Fill in the elements for the setup process

6. What are causes of downtime during the operation?

-Carry out downtime studies -Pareto analysis

-In depth analysis: observation, participation, speaking with project members and operators 7. Which measures should be taken to take

away the downtime causes during the operation?

-Brainstorm sessions with project members and operators

-Observations, participations

-Trigger LU line management to implement improvement opportunities.

8. In what way can the new method of working be implemented?

-Make agreements with project members.

-Discuss with operators Table 2.1 Methods & techniques

The methodology that has been discussed in this chapter will be used as a guideline throughout this

thesis. In chapters 4 and 5 we will give an answer on the sub-questions by performing the activities

that will be derived from the methods and techniques. In chapter 7 we will answer the formulated

central research question.

20

3 Initial situation

In the previous chapter we formulated the problem definition for this thesis. Also, we gave a description of the problem context. In that description, we stated that the reduction of downtime of bottleneck capacities of the LU Filling Department will lead to shorter setup time and to higher efficiency rates for the filling operation. These effects will enable the LU to reduce Inventory costs and Direct costs for personnel and machines. Eventually, these cost savings will cause the cost per liter (paint) to decrease, which will have a positive effect on the continuity of the “Town A” site and for the competitive position of the Akzo Nobel “BU X” business unit.

Chapters 4 and 5 will describe the projects that were carried out to reduce downtime of bottleneck capacities (filling machines) in the LU “Town A”. In this chapter we will discuss the initial situation of the elements that will be influenced by the projects that will be executed in the LU. In paragraph 3.1 we will go into the primary process of the LU. The Planning & Control of this process will be discussed in paragraph 3.2. Also the filling lines of the LU Filling Department will be discussed in detail. This description will give the reader a clear image of the Filling Department.

Paragraph 3.3 will discuss the setup process of the LU filling machines. We stated earlier that efficiency of the filling operation is strongly related to downtime. It will be discussed in paragraph 3.4.

3.1 LU primary process

In principle, the primary process of the LU is the transformation of raw materials into discrete products of solvent borne lacquers and stains. This is schematically represented by figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1 LU primary process

Required raw materials are delivered batchwize to the LU by the P&L Sector Packaging Material, Warehouse and Printing. Next to these batchwize deliveries, bulk raw materials are delivered to the LU directly by suppliers. Examples of bulk raw materials are solvent, and resins like Titanium A and B.

The Production Department produces (table 1.3) semi-finished products (SEFI’s) out of the bulk raw materials. Together with the non-bulk raw materials these SEFI’s are transformed into a batch of top- SEFI (i.e. paint or stain). These batches of top-SEFI’s are produced in transportable vessels or in non- transportable vessels (tanks).

The Filling Department transfers the batches of top-SEFI’s from the vessels into discrete products (FINI’s). This is done with the help of Filling Machines. A Filling machine pumps paint from a vessel into a funnel (hopper). From the hopper the finished product is pumped into a tin. After pressing a lid on the tin it is trayed in plastic or packed in boxes. After that, packaging operators stack the trays or boxes on pallets. In some cases, the FINI’s are stacked without being shrink wrapped or packed in boxes. The pallets are wrapped in plastic and after scanning they are ready for transportation to one of the Distribution Centers. In chapter 2 it was made clear that the focus of this thesis is on the filling lines of the LU Filling Department. A detailed description can be found in Appendix 3.1.

Filling Department Production

Department Raw

Material

Discrete Product Filling

Department Production

Department

21 The created finished product can be divided in ready mixed (RM) paints and in mixing machine (MM) paint. The RM products are already made in the right colour while MM products still need to be colour mixed before it is used by the end user. This is usually done at wholesalers and retailers.

3.2 LU Planning & Control 3.2.1 Planning

Long term and Medium term planning

A yearly Master Production Schedule (MPS) is derived from long term sales forecast information. In the medium term planning the MPS is evaluated through a rough-cut capacity and material check. The objective of this capacity planning function is to asses the MPS with respect to available capacity.

With this rough-cut capacity planning starting dates of planning orders are moved forwards or backwards in time to smoothen the workload and make a realistic production plan. The planning horizon for this rough-cut capacity check is 13 weeks. This so called 13 week plan is evaluated weekly.

Short term planning

Plan orders from the MPS are transformed into process orders by the production planner and checked on availability of raw materials (RM) and packaging materials (PM). If all RM and PM are available the order is released to production.

3.2.2 Short term control

Whenever a vessel becomes free on the shop floor the Group Leader can choose from all released process orders. He chooses the process order which he thinks is best to process next. With this choice no formal priority rule is applied. The scheduler prints the following documents:

• Fabrication document with work prescriptions for a recipe with a certain batch size;

• Sticker sheets for marking tanks and inspection samples;

• Raw materials document which is printed by the material supply warehouse. This document contains the exact quantities of raw materials (RM) the warehouse needs to deliver to production.

The required quantities of RM are set out by the employees of the RM warehouse and delivered to the Production Department.

Production Operation

The Group Leader gives out the fabrication document to dispersion/mixing after the raw materials, semi finished products and auxiliaries, as mentioned on the fabrication document, are available and indicates in which tank the product needs to be made. The indicated vessel gets a label that makes the product recognizable.

The on the fabrication document prescripted processes are executed. From the product a sample is taken and is provided with a sample sticker. An authorized operator or inspector then inspects the sample along with the fabrication document and remaining stickers. If the product needs to be adjusted, the corrections are determined according to the inspection prescription. The Production Department processes the product according this prescription. If the product characteristics are outside the inspection tolerances, this is dealt with as described in the ‘procedure inspection.’ This cycle is repeated until the product is approved.

If the product is approved then this is mentioned on the fabrication document. The Production

document is then signed out in ERP-system (SAP R/3) and further carried off to the archive by the

Scheduler.

22 Filling Operation

On the basis of the released filling plan the Scheduler prints the filling order and Handling Unit stickers. One of the LU Steerers collects the filling orders and Handling Unit stickers and transports them to the assigned filling line. The product is filled according to the prescriptions on the filling document. The final product is shrink wrapped, box packed, or manually stacked on pallets. The wrapped palled is provided with a pallet sticker and after the pallet is pallet-turned, it is ready for transportation. The filling order is then reported as finished in SAP R/3 and further carried off to the archive by the Scheduler.

3.3 Setup process: filling operation

In chapter 1 we have seen that the LU produces approximately 2200 solvent-based items in total. Data from short term scheduling shows that, on average, 120 filling batches (different items) per week are filled. This also means that per week, 120 setup processes need to be carried out. These 120 setup processes are divided over the 4 filling machines that have been described in appendix 3.1. The number of setup processes per filling machine depends on batch size, which normally varies from 20 to 3500.

On paper, the (estimated) lead time for a setup process varies from 5 to 60 minutes. This lead time is used for short term scheduling. For a setup with no cleaning and with little adjustments to the filling machine the estimated setup time is 5 minutes. For a setup with intensive cleaning and many adjustments to the filling machine the estimated setup time is 60 minutes. Between these two extremes, several values are possible. The time it takes to carry out a setup process is strongly influenced by cyclic scheduling.

3.3.1 Cyclic scheduling

Filling batches for the LU are scheduled in a so called cyclic order. This means that volume and color of items determine the sequence of filling. Low volume, light colored items are scheduled before large volume, darker colored items (ascending in volume, ascending in brightness). After the largest volume, darkest colored item has been scheduled, the volume sequence is repeated in descending order. Cyclic scheduling reduces the time it takes to clean and to setup the filling machines.

Despite short term scheduling in cyclic order, it is not always possible to avoid setup processes with intensive cleaning or large fluctuations in volume. This is due to demand: it is not always necessary to produce items that can reduce setup time by cyclic scheduling.

3.3.2 Setup activities

We have seen that on average, 120 setup processes for the filling operation are executed per week.

Using cyclic scheduling, setup processes with many activities are avoided as much as possible.

In general, a setup process in the LU is carried out by one person: the filling operator. After the last tin of a filling batch is finished, the filling operator carries out all the necessary activities. This means that the operator collects the required materials for the next filling batch: tins, lids and labels. The operator cleans the ‘hopper’ of the filling machine and the supply hose with solvent. The new mobile vessel or tank with paint is connected to the filling machine. After that, the settings of the filling machine will be adjusted for the new item. The moment that the first tin of the next filling batch is filled, the setup process of the filling machine is finished. Setup activities in the initial situation will be discussed elaborately in Chapter 4.

In the initial situation, all setup activities are carried out Inside Exchange of Dies, i.e. when the filling

machine is not running. Setup activities are not carried out in parallel. Further, it is not known to

management how many setup activities need to be done, which activities need to be done and how

long they really take to carry out. The setup process is not controlled because there is no plan and no

control on the execution of that plan.

23 3.4 Efficiency

In chapter 2 we saw that the efficiency problems in the Filling Department of the LU are strongly related to time. We even chose to use the term downtime when speaking about setup time and downtime during the filling operation as a whole. In this paragraph we will explain how time is related to efficiency in the LU. Also, we will look at the average performance per week in the initial situation.

We will not only look at the efficiency rates, but also at the realized productivity in the LU Filling Department. Productivity is strongly related to efficiency. Productivity increases when efficiency rates increase.

In the LU, efficiency of the filling machines is daily calculated with the following formulas:

Optimum Time = Produced Output/ Bottleneck Speed (1) Efficiency = Optimum Time/ Actual Time (2)

At the end of the day, the Produced Output (quantity) of that day is divided by the Bottleneck Speed.

The outcome of this calculation is the Optimum time. In this case, the filling machines of the LU are treated as bottleneck. The Bottleneck Speed equals the speed norms for filling (table 3.1). In the past, fixed speed norms were set per tin size. The norms were derived from the technical capabilities of the filling machines. It is expressed in Cans per minute (Cpm). The speed norm is related to the volume of an item.

Volume (liter) Cpm

0.25 40 0.5 40 0.75 40 1.0 40 2.5 30 4.0 18 5.0 18 Table 3.1 Speed norms filling

To calculate efficiency, Optimum time is divided by Actual Time. The Actual Time is equal to the booked process hours of that day (i.e. the number of hours that the filling machines theoretically perform their operation). In practice, the Actual Time to produce output is always longer than the Optimum Time. This is because of (unwanted) downtime. This means that booked process hours are equal to Optimum time + Total Downtime. This also means that the Total Downtime is equal to Booked process hours minus the Optimum time:

Total Downtime = Booked process hours - Optimum time

It is important to understand that the deviation between Optimum time and Actual Time is strongly influenced by the execution of setup processes and by downtime during the operation. In chapter 5 we will see that downtime during the operation has many causes.

Table 3.2 shows de average efficiency rates (per week) of the LU filling machines in the period before the projects to reduce downtime.

If we look at week 14 we see an average (4 filling machines) efficiency of 24.7%. This means that the

total output was 24.7% of what could have been produced in the Optimum Time. One could also say

that 75.3% of the time the filling machines were not running. It is also a possibility that the filling

machines have been running at lower speed than the speed norm.

24

Week # Average efficiency

14 24.7 %

15 26.8 %

16 29.5 %

17 28.4 %

18 29.3 %

19 28.2 %

20 27.3 %

21 28.0 %

Table 3.2 Average efficiency initial situation

Further, efficiency is related to productivity. The higher the efficiency, the higher the productivity. In the LU, productivity is measured in liters/ man-hour. Table 3.3 gives an overview of the productivity in the initial situation.

Week # Productivity (liter/man-hour)

14 137,68 15 142,84 16 133,07 17 141,14 18 150,73 19 140,63 20 149,20 21 166,22

Table 3.3 LU Productivity

This chapter discussed the initial situation of the elements that are subject of this thesis. In the following chapters we will discuss 2 projects that will have strong influence on these elements.

Chapter 4 will discuss a project called Fillpower that aims to reduce setup time for the LU filling

machines. After that, chapter 5 will discuss a project that aims to reduce downtime during the filling

operation.

25

4 Setup time reduction

In chapter 2 we discussed the cost problems of the LU “Town A” and we saw that these problems are related to downtime. We said that in downtime it is possible to distinguish 2 separate elements: Setup time and Downtime during the Operation.

This chapter will give an overview of the activities that have been executed to get an answer on the first 5 sub-questions that have been formulated in chapter 2. The sub-questions are all related to the Setup time-part of downtime:

• Out of which sub-processes does the setup process consist?

• Which sub-processes can be converted from Inside Exchange of Dies into Outside Exchange of Dies?

• How can the remaining Inside Exchange of Dies-activities be accelerated?

• In what way is it possible to make the setup process controllable?

• How can the ‘best practice’ in setup be sustained?

Paragraph 4.1 will give an overview of the activities that have been carried out per step by the project team members and the tools, methods and techniques that have been used. Also, the outcomes per step will be discussed. The theoretical concepts and “BU X” practices that have been used for the reduction of Setup time can be found in Appendix 4.1.

In chapter 2 we discussed that problems in the area of Machine Logistics mean that one has to study shop floor conditions in great detail. Understanding, analyzing and redesigning business processes will not succeed without the participation of operators. Therefore, we will pay special attention (in the form of key focus points) to the way the operators of the LU were kept open and involved and we will identify important issues for the project leader (Facilitator) during each step of the project. These key focus points are the elements one should focus on when working on a similar project to reduce setup time.

Finally, conclusions & recommendations for the future will be discussed in paragraph 4.2.

To get an answer on the sub-questions listed above, a project called ‘Fillpower’ has been executed in the LU “Town A”. In general, the project team followed 7 steps (figure 4.1) to reduce the setup time of the filling machines in the LU. When looking at these steps, one has to consider that these steps are iterative. Especially step, three, four and five are not easily distinguished and run through each other.

Officially, the SMED-technique ends after stage 3. One of the goals of project Fillpower was to sustain the results that have been accomplished. That is the reason why the project team added two extra steps to the SMED-technique.

Setup Time

Downtime during Operation

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Downtime

26 Figure 4.1 Project steps

4.1 Project description

This paragraph will give an overview of the activities that have been carried out for each of the steps by the project team members. For each step we will refer to an appendix. The details of the activities per step, as well as the tools, methods and techniques that have been used can be found in these appendixes. In order to make this description not too complicated, step 4 and 5 will be discussed in the same sub-paragraph. This is also the case for step 6 and 7. Next to this, chapter 6 we will pay special attention to the sustainability of the achieved performance.

The results per step will be discussed and special attention will be given to the key focus points during each step (for steps 4/5 and 6/7 together). These key focus points are the elements one should focus on when working on a similar project to reduce setup time.

4.1.1 Step 1: Introduction of the SMED-technique

Activities Step 1 (details in Appendix 4.2) Introduction of:

• project Fillpower to all LU employees: in a special meeting the LU Sector Leader briefly discussed the objectives of project Fillpower and underlined the support of the “Town A”

production site management.

• the Facilitator (student): the LU Sector Leader introduced the Facilitator to the LU employees and the Facilitator briefly spoke about the coming activities.

• SMED-technique and project steps to members of Rapid Result Team: in a presentation, the Facilitator explained the SMED-technique to the members of the Rapid Result Team.

• SMED-technique and project steps to members of Fill Team: in a presentation, the Facilitator explained the SMED-technique to the members of the Fill Team.

Results

The result of this 1

step is that all the project team members get acquainted with the SMED- technique. It is important that the project team members know the principles of the technique, because in the end they are the persons that have to come up with improvement ideas.

An unwanted result of this 1

step is that commotion and resistance among the operators rise. A substantial part of the operators doesn’t want to start thinking about changes that will affect their way of working. Main cause is the fact that they think that they will have to work harder.

Preliminary

Stage Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4

Step 1:

Introduction of SMED- technique

Step 2:

Measurement of Total Setup Time

Step 3:

Separating IED- from OED-activities

Step 4:

Converting IED- in OED-activities and move OED- activities out of the Setup process

Step 5:

Accelerating of IED-activities

Step 6:

Standardizing the new Setup process

Step 7:

Sustaining the new method of working