SMED Is a method that seeks to achieve a fast and efficient way of converting a production process.

Switching is all the activities that are needed to switch from a current production order to a new production order. This concept says that each change should take less than ten minutes.

One-Touch Exchange or Die ( OTED ), is an advanced concept that changes should only take up to a hundred seconds. The inventor of this concept is the Japanese industrial engineer Shigeo Shingo.

Structural Step, There are seven basic steps within the SMED method to reduce the changeover time of a system:

•  Observe the current method

•  Separation of internal and external ("offline") conversion activities. Internal activities are those that can only be performed when the system is stopped. External operations to be carried out, while yet the last (from the previous series), or has already produced the first batch (of the next series). For example: fetching tools before the machine stops; the construction of viaducts next to the railroad tracks that are then retracted in one Sunday night; in a theater, hanging sets for different companies in a stage tower, which shortens the change time between companies.

•  Convert (where possible) internal activities to external activities (for example, pre-heating tools).

•  Streamline the remaining internal activities by simplifying them. For example, concentrate on clamps.

•  Streamline external activities.

•  Document the new procedure and describe what still needs to be done in the future.

•  Repeat this method. A 45% improvement can be expected from any iteration of the above process. So it can take several iterations to get under 10 minutes.

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