Single minute exchange of die

Posted on 31/05/2022 by gembaAdmin22

In this blog we will be learning about SMED and how to implement it.
The basic principle of Lean manufacturing is to increase the competitiveness of
companies by reducing costs. This philosophy seeks to get as close to the optimum as
possible, that is, to spend only what is indispensable of what adds value to the product.
In this sense the Lean manufacturing simply intends to remove all the possible waste.
The principles of Lean are all focused on process improvement, which ultimately leads
to improved efficiency and this leads to higher profitability. One of the building blocks of
Lean relates to the rapid setup. The faster the setup times, the less equipment
downtime since waiting is part of the seven Muda (waste) of a production environment.

What is SMED

SMED is a set of techniques belonging to Lean manufacturing that aim to reduce the
setup time of a machine. When properly applied, it allows machines to take less time to
attach, giving more flexibility to the line.
SMED, also known as Quick Changeover of Tools, can be applied in any industrial unit
and to any machine. It is defined as the minimum amount of time necessary to change
the type of production activity. Thus, it takes into consideration the moment in which the
last piece of a previous lot was produced vis-à-vis the first piece produced by the
subsequent lot (Shingo, 1985).

Why the SMED is required?

From the above example we can see that when our lot size increases, production to
operation time ratio decreases. But in this highly competitive market era every company
wants to increase the variety of products and wants to minimize the lot size as much as
possible.
So, for the small lot size it is necessary that the die changeover time should be not high
other wise it effects the production time and the cost of the product.

Steps in SMED

Observing and Recording.
Separation between internal and external tasks.
- Internal tasks: activities performed during the change operation while the
  machine is in downtime.
- External Tasks: activities performed before the change operation, not made in the downtime period.
Converting the maximum number of internal tasks into external tasks. Streamlining all the possible tasks.
Documenting internal and external procedures.

Phases in SMED

Total Productive Maintenance

Aside

In this blog we will be looking at brief introduction to Total Productive Maintenance and how to do it,

With help of this you can learn what is TPM all about.

So let’s get in to details of it.

What is TPM?

Total productive maintenance (TPM), a resource-emphasized approach moves the paradigm of maintenance by putting emphasis on total employee involvement in the maintenance activities. Operators and all employees should be actively involved in a maintenance programme that enable to avoid any disruptions, breakdowns, stoppages, failures, and so forth in order to improve manufacturing performance

TPM originated in the Japanese industrial sector. Its aim is to help maintain and improve production systems. TPM tackles this across a full spectrum, involving all employees at all levels in the maintenance and servicing of their organization’s equipment and machinery.

Applying the principles properly will help you minimize the likelihood of equipment failures and maximize productivity and continuity. What’s more, TPM helps raise awareness among employees about technology, safety, and the environment because it instils a sense of ownership of the equipment and machinery they work with on a daily basis.

The TPM concept was developed to support (JIT)

You can’t be lean if you don’t have reliable equipment

TPM History

TPM is a innovative Japanese concept. The origin of TPM can be traced back to 1951 when preventive maintenance was introduced in Japan. However the concept of preventive maintenance was taken from USA. Nippondenso (of Toyota group) was the first company to introduce plant wide preventive maintenance in 1960.

Thus Nippondenso which already followed preventive maintenance also added Autonomous maintenance done by production operators.

Hence this preventive maintenance along with Employee Reliability making a better productive culture turned into Productive Maintenance concept.

Nippondenso of the Toyota group became the first company to obtain the TPM certification.

TPM Pillars

Autonomous Maintenance

Also Called as Individual Improvement and Jishu Hozen

Objective:- Operator has to be self-responsible for its machine / equipment.
AM Steps

Step 0 :- Cleaning and Identification of Abnormalities

Step 1 :- Correction of Abnormalities and Starting of OEE Measurement

Step 2 :- Identification & Improvement in HTAA and SOC Standards

Step 3 :- Achieve OEE desired level by Continual Improvements

Focused Improvement

Also Called as Kobetsu Kaizen
Objective:- Reduction of Such losses which are leading to decrease our 6M efficiency.
Losses Categorization:- There are 16 losses in FI/KK which are divided into 3 categories.
Category 1 :- Equipment Related Losses = 8 Losses
Category 2 :- Manpower Related Losses = 5 Losses
Category 3 :- Resource Consumption Related Losses = 3 Losses
Total Losses = 16 Losses.

Planned Maintenance

Also Called as Preventive Maintenance
Objective:- Reduction and Elimination of Breakdowns or any other downtimes caused by machine / equipment.
Types of Maintenance:- There are 3 types of Maintenance which results into reduction and elimination of Breakdown maintenance.

1 :- Time based Maintenance = ( Preventive maintenance with timely planning machine wise)

2 :- Condition based Maintenance = (Machine / Equipment showing signs that it needs maintenance)

3 :- Reliability Centered Maintenance = (An approach to reduce CBM and transfer the same to TBM)
What If Breakdown Happens
Firstly correction action is to be taken for making the machine back in running condition (Containment Action)
Contingency Plan :- CAPA = Corrective Action : Preventive Action

Steps Under CA :-

To prepare a core team for solving the proble
m occurred.
Problem Statement is to be discussed among team
RCA is to be done on the problem phenomena.
Countermeasure is to be prepared and implemented.
Trial and Performance run is to be done for about a limited time (Time depends upon the level of problem)
After Success, Solution needs to be added in TBM Checklist for timely inspection of the same.

Steps Under PA :-

Globalize the Solution on the machines where same working nature exists or same problem may occur. (Horizontal Deployment).

Quality Maintenance

To move from Quality control to Quality Assurance.
Objective:- Reduction and Elimination of Defects, Making Process so robust that it will be produce FTR products with Zero defects.

Steps involved in QM:-

1 :- To Check the Process from Raw Material (Input)

2 :- To Identify and Validate the Critical parameters of Raw material and Throughput w.r.t. Customer Demand (Output)

3 :- Quality Maintenance Matrix is to be made for Regular check (Sustenance)

Safety, health and environment

Objective:- To provide a safe and healthy environment to employee for his/ her well being.

What to do in Safety :-

Safety hazards (Near miss and Leads to near miss) to be identified and recorded.
HIRA (Hazard identification risk assessment) is to be done on every equipment for zero accidents assurance on Shop floor.
PPE’s (Personal Protective Equipment’s) are to be provided to each and every employee.
Visual Management regarding safety is to be done.
PPE matrix is to be made machine wise.
LOTO (Lock out Tag out) is to be done if any machine is under maintenance or any area where work is under progress.
One Assembly point is required for gathering of each employee (if there is a chance of any mis-happening in the plant premises).

What to do in Health :-

To keep human being healthy is the main objective.
Periodic Food and water checkup list is to be prepared and implemented.
Periodic checkup of each employee in OHC (Occupation health center) should be implemented.
Ergonomic study on shop floor should be conducted by Safety and Health department and resources should be provided to employee for ergonomic satisfaction.

What to do in Environment :-

To Check each machine various hazardous gaseous emission through chimneys while producing output via gas emission detectors.
To Check for Air Pollution, Water Pollution, Noise Pollution and Land Pollution with Environment engineer on periodic bases and to take necessary steps against any Non-Conformance.

Article By:- Vallabh Gawade

Capacity Planning for Manufacturing

Posted on 11/02/2022 by gembaAdmin22

In this blog we will be learning the basics of capacity planning and how to do it, With help of this you can perform capacity analysis for any manufacturing facility. So let’s get in to details of it.

What is capacity?

As name suggests capacity is the maximum amount that something can contain or produce, in manufacturing terms we can say that capacity is ability to manufacture a particular quantity of products in a particular duration of time.

So what about the planning

Capacity planning is basically an analysis done to check whether a manufacturing plant can produce a particular no of products in a given period, with available no of resources.

The capacity is calculated over days or weeks or months. The measurement is done in a way that we can adjust our production capacity according to the demand from the market.

Normally capacity planning is done on machines or equipment. There will be two outcome of this analysis; either there is capacity or numbers.

If want to take in to consider the number, then we can tell how much more machines to be required to fulfil the demand.

Calculation of Machine hour Capacity

Our first step is to understand and calculate the capacity of the machine hour in the factory. For an example if a factory has 200 machines, and the workers in the factory utilize the machine from 8 am to 6 pm for 10 hours a day, then the capacity would be 10 multiplied by 200, which comes to 2000 machine hours.

Production capacity with a single product

1^st step to calculate capacity with single product is to determine time to produce a single product, and then it is divided by the plant capacity in hours.

For example, if one worker takes 40 minutes (0.66hrs) on a machine to make one product and the capacity of the machine has 2000 hours, then the production capacity would be

2000 / 0.66, then this would be 3003 units per day

How to do capacity planning

For better understanding let’s see an example

Suppose manufacturing plants needs to produce 100 units per day and we need to do capacity analysis

And if this product requires two operations A and B and its standard times are 5 minutes and 10 minutes respectively.

So the standard times are calculated by a method called time study.

And also operation A and B use two machines X and Y respectively. And presently have one each.

Standard working time of this plant is 420 minutes per shift breaks are excluded and this plant operates three shifts per day.

Also on an average 30 minutes is required for both machines for maintenance or we can say for down time, change overs, etc.

Suppose 98% is the yield of the both machines. Also these two machines is only able to run at 85% efficiency of its standard speed, if we take in to consideration of minor stoppages.

So let’s calculate.

Considering the minor speed loss, cycle time per product for both machines will be 5/(0.85) and 10/(0.85) minutes, respectively.

This is 5.88 and 11.76 respectively.

Also since yield for these machines is 98%, to produce 2% more of the demand, which is, 100 x 1.02 = 108

Now let’s calculate load on each machines.

Calculate load of the machine X…

This is equal to demand per shift x cycle time

= (108/3) x 5.88

= 211.68 minutes.

Calculate load of the machine Y…

This is equal to demand per shift x cycle time

= (108/3) x 11.76

= 423.36 minutes.

Now let’s calculate no of each machine required for meeting the demand.

No of the machine = Load per shift / Available time per shift per machine.

= 211.68 / (420 – 30)

= 0.54

This is one machine. And we have enough capacity for doing the operation A. No need to worry.

Now let’s check the capacity for operation B.

No of the machine = Load per shift / Available time per shift per machine.

= 432.36 / (420- 30)

= 1.11

So we require two machines for doing operation B.

We can conclude that there is a capacity issue. We only have one machine for doing operation B and we need one more.

This is how the capacity planning is been done

Article By – Shivank Kumar Choubey

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Aside

Let us first understand what is TQM and after that we will look into its 4 major pillars which helps us in TQM for achieving desired results.

Total = Made up of the whole.
Quality = Degree of excellence of a product or service provides.
Management = Art of Planning, Organizing, Controlling etc.

TQM can be further divided into 3 parts as follows

System = All persons of all divisions at every stratum.
Method = In methods there are different tools and methods which are used to
achieve desired result such as Kaizen, QC Circle, 5S, TPM, MSA, OEE etc.
Purpose = Purpose can be any of the following from (QCDSME).
▪ Q: Quality improvement
▪ C: Cost reduction
▪ D: Delivery execution
▪ S: Safety maintenance
▪ M: Morale boosting
▪ E: Environmental protection

TQM can be defined as a management approach for an organization, centred on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organization and to society. And the main motive of TQM is to “Do the right things right the first time, every time”

❖ 4 Pillars of TQM

Customer Focus: Studying customer needs, gathering customer requirements, and measuring and managing customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is seen as the company’s highest priority. The company believes that it will only be successful if its customers are satisfied.
Process Management: Develop a production process that reduce the product variations. Applying the same process; the same product should be produces with the same level of quality every time. Teams are process-oriented, and interact with their internal customers to deliver the required results. Management’s focus is on controlling the overall process, and rewarding teamwork.
Employee Empowerment: TQM environment requires a committed and well trained work force that participates fully in quality improvement activities. Ongoing education and training of all employees supports the drive for quality.
Continuous Improvement: TQM recognizes that product quality is the result of process quality. As a result, there is a focus on continuous improvement of the company’s processes. This will lead to an improvement in process quality. In turn this will lead to an improvement in product quality. Measurement and analysis id the tool that has been used for that

Article By.

Dhavalkumar Gohel

5S An Opportunity

Aside

5S is a methodology that helps in organizing our workplace and ensures that work is performed efficiently, effectively and more importantly in a safe environment. This helps in making our work environment secure, non- hazardous and improves communication and discipline between the workers.

5S consists of 5 terms that define the whole methodology of this process.

1S – Seiri(Sorting)

This term involves sorting out the required and non- required items of our workplace. After this Red tags are assigned to the periodically used or non-required items and a separate place is allotted to the Red Tag material called as Red tag area. This helps in improving the space utilization and also results in monetary

2S – Seiton(Set in Order)

According to this term “Everything must have its place and Everything must be at its place”. In this process we define and fix the layout of the work area and arrange everything in order that reduces search time/waiting time, helps in faster movement

3S – Seiso(Shine)

This term means to keep our working environment clean. This helps to detect leakages if any, provides a hygienic and safe working environment and improves working efficiency. It involves of providing cleaning check lists, CLIT checklists etc. to ensure cleaning action is being carried out regularly and timely.

4S – Seiketsu (Standardize)

In this method Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are created for more visual display, engagement of the It helps to assign regular tasks, create schedules and enforce instructions so that the activities become daily life routine. It helps in uniform implementation of 1S, 2S and 3S in the organization.

5S – Shitsuke (Sustain)

Sustain means to ensure discipline throughout the implementation of 5S. It is the centre of the whole 5S process and unless it is carried out perfectly by the work force of the organization 5S cannot be implemented. It involves keeping a record of the improvement and analyse the loop holes for which 5S is not getting implemented. Here a 5S audit is done and score is provided to each zone that helps to understand where the particular organization or area stands in terms of 5S.

Article by

Taksh Agarwal

4 Steps to Realizing Gemba Success

Posted on 24/12/2021 by gembaAdmin22

1. Know the Purpose

Before you head out on your gemba walk, you need to plan. Tackling an entire value creation process at once is overwhelming and often results in vague observations that aren’t very useful. To create a plan, you first need to understand your purpose on both a large and small scale. In the most general sense, what is the purpose of your business? Presumably, your purpose is to help your customer solve a problem in some way. The product you provide solves that problem. Make sure you always keep that purpose in mind. For example, during your walk you might ask yourself how a particular step in a process adds value for a customer. More specifically, you need to have a purpose for your gemba walk, and it’s often useful to have a purpose more specific than “assess the state of my company’s processes.” Decide what aspect of your operations you want to look at during a given walk and keep in mind what you want to learn. Maybe you want to look at how safe a process is or whether any extra motion exists during a task. Understand that you can’t cover everything at once. Do stay open-minded during your walk, though, to whatever you see. Additionally, remember that an important aspect of any gemba walk is creating a dialogue with people and encouraging them to think creatively about work tasks and roadblocks.

2. Know the Gemba

To observe and assess anything, you need to understand it. So before you head out on your gemba walk, you need to have knowledge of the processes and people in your facility. Consider what the core activities of your business are and where they’re located. You might want to take visits to your manufacturing floor, the place where products are developed, the shipping department, the people in charge of managing suppliers, or even your customer service team. You shouldn’t try to visit all of those locations at once, but they’re likely all important to the products you create. Determine which ones you plan to visit during a walk. Consider making a schedule for gemba walks if that helps you. Each organization has different places where value is created, so your business may have many more gembas that you should visit. Whatever the location, know what standard procedures are so when you observe them you can consider how well they are working and whether they should be adjusted. Remember, though, that you should think of your workplace as a team. Calling something “your” gemba can limit your thinking and restrict teamwork.

3. Observe

Once you understand the goals and activities that go on in your workplace, it’s time to put your new knowledge of gemba into practice and observe. Remember to approach your work without bias and be open-minded. Your attitude will have a large impact on the success of your walk. During your walk, focus on aspects of your process that are currently of interest. You might examine efficiency, safety, or housekeeping. You might even take a look at your waste pile as a way to see what kinds of defects exist. As you walk, think about the purpose, the people, and the process. These three ideas are all connected. The purpose of solving a customer’s problem is achieved by people and the process. When you see a problem, you can ask how and why something is done, but don’t blame or try to correct employees. While at the gemba, focus on taking in information and fostering a discussion.

Questions to Consider During a Gemba Walk

Each gemba walk will be different, but these general questions can help you focus on your purpose, people, and process:

What is working well?
Is protocol being followed?
Which activities add value?
What stations or individuals create value?
Are expected levels of output being met?
Are there variations in the process?
Are there abnormalities in products?
Is cleanliness a problem?
Is machinery in good working order?
Do workers need training or support?
Is any documentation needed?
Are tasks done safely?
Is there any wasted time or resources?

Questions to Ask Workers

First and foremost, you want to observe workers. It’s usually better if they don’t know a gemba walk will be happening so they behave normally. That being said, you do want to engage them in a dialogue. If you need help starting a conversation with your workers after observing them, here are some questions that can help:

Can you show me how you perform this task?
Is it always done this way?
Do problems ever pop up for you?
What would you change about this if you could?
What tools do you use?

4. Improve

After your walk, reflect on what you’ve observed. Perhaps you saw employees spending a lot of time walking back and forth to get tools, and some workers suggested rearranging a workstation to reduce this wasted time. Now you can come up with a plan to make the needed changes, determine who will implement them, and follow through to see the adjustments are made. Even better, you can follow up again on a future gemba walk after the changes have occurred to observe whether the process has improved. Whatever you observed and discussed with workers, consider how those observations can be turned into improvements that will create a better product for your customer.

VALUE STREAM MAPPING

Posted on 24/12/2021 by gembaAdmin22

Value Stream Mapping shows where you can improve your process by visualizing both its value-adding and non-value-adding steps.

What Is VSM?

Value stream mapping is a lean manufacturing or lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze and improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer.

A value stream map displays all the important steps of the work process necessary to deliver value from start to finish. It allows visualizing every task that the team works on and provides single glance status reports about each assignment’s progress. It enables the team and leadership to see where the actual value is being added in the process, allowing them to improve on the overall efficiency associated with the delivery of a product.

VSM can be used for individual products and services for every type of business.

Terminologies in VSM

· Information Flow

This section shows the communication of process-related information and the transmission of data.

· Product Flow

This section maps the steps of the development lifecycle from concept to delivery. It shows both the task being performed & the person or team performing task.

· Cycle time (C/T)

It is the frequency of units produced or the average time between the completed production of one unit to the completed production of the next.

· Setup Time (S/T)

It is the amount of time needed to prepare for a given step.

· Uptime (%)

It gives an idea of the percentage of the total time that the processes or systems are actually active.

· Time Ladder

The Time Ladder provides a visual representation of the value stream timeline.

The upper portion of the time ladder represents the average amount of time that a product spends in the queue or waiting at each stage.

The lower portion of the time ladder shows the average amount of time that each product was actively being worked on, or more specifically when value is actually being added to the product during that specific stage.

How to map the first Value Stream

Define your focus –

This is probably the most important step of the entire VSM exercise. Start with clearly defining the objective. With a clear objective in mind, identify the appropriate focus, scope, and process to be mapped.

Next, determine your fence posts, or the start and endpoints of your mapping exercise. A value stream map is not a process flowchart. It doesn’t need to map every possible inflow or outflow of the process. By maintaining focus on the predetermined objectives and fenceposts, the mapping activity is likely to stay on track and focused.

Go to Gemba (Walk the Process) –

“Go to Gemba” means go to the place where the work is being done. Visit the customer where the production is taking place and understand why they need the features they are requesting.

Define the basic Value Stream –

Start with preparing basic VSM as a starting point. The key thing here is to outline only the process basics and hereafter add the other details step by step.

Develop Current State Value Stream Map –

Starting with the basic VSM add the additional processes and their corresponding data, including current cycle times, lead times, up times, takt times, SLA’s, etc. This should reflect all stages within the defined fence posts, and their respective values as they currently are. This is known as your “Current State” VSM. This current state will be immensely important to keep the process baseline.

From this current state, the mapping team will be able to better understand the entire process. This enables the team to discuss productive what-if and to develop better solutions to identified hot points. It enables to provide a before and after comparison of the process and its performance figures to know if the changes have any desired impact.

Develop Target State Value Stream Map –

Once the current state VSM has been completed, the team will need to develop a Target State VSM. The target state represents a clear target of where you want to end up. These targets can be expressed in delivery velocity, quality-focused metrics, compliance, or any combination of these. The important thing here is to identify a goal to work.

Develop Future State Value Stream Map –

As improvements to the process are identified and planned, the VSM team will need to develop an implementation plan. These improvements will often require a phased approach to introduce necessary changes to achieve the target state.

To do this, a future state VSM should be created for each state of the implementation plan, which typically includes a 30, 60, 90-day view. This allows validating your assumptions at each stage of the implementation plan, to make sure the changes are having the desired impact and moving the value stream performance in the right direction. The future state VSM gives team members a unified view of the overall process as well as targeted objectives to work toward.