Methodology to improve machine changeover performance on food industry based on SMED

Résumé

This article discusses how to apply Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) methodology in the food industry, bearing in mind the peculiarities of this sector, as it is comprised within the mass market industry (cleaning and cosmetics products, textile, etc.). Regarding innovation, this research delves into the application of SMED to the field of machine changeovers (changes in format, products, tools, etc.), while also analysing the possible in order to be minimised. These losses are focused on irregular machine changeovers, that is, lack of standard work methodology, maintenance defects, lack of spare parts, lack of operator specialisation, etc. The implemented methodology contains a proposal to measure the results of the SMED technique using the mean time between failures (MTBF) and mean time to repair such failure (MTTR) along with indicators such as global efficiency (GE) and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). MTBF and MTTR help evaluate and improve the implementation of SMED-based methodology. But we can also assess how long it takes us to act in the event of contingency, such as a line failure or repair, and reduce it accordingly. © 2016 Springer-Verlag London