“What a difference a second makes” – a quote from an empowered employee. Just one second over a ten second continuous cycle can mean your line runs consistently 10% faster, the difference between comfortably achieving tight production schedules or continually being capacity constrained.
From definition of the current cycle, quickly through to mapping and optimisation, the team can quickly visualise the opportunity that exists – a real ‘light-bulb’ moment, where previously the required improvement would not have been pursued.
Detailed visualisation of the each stage in the cycle / process, whether a ten second continuous cycle or a two hour non-continuous process, is the key to real understanding of where your opportunity lies.
Application of the optimisation stage shows what the improved cycle / process time should be, and what steps need to be taken to achieve the result.
(The other way to reduce changeover loss is to have fewer of them!).
Suitable for all levels on the continuous improvement ladder, both strong and weak, LI Europe is able to pass on a very powerful SMED technique .