How to reduce set-up time by 50%: Some winning strategies for small lot manufacturing
By Steve Walker
How does a furniture manufacturing company move from traditional, large lot size, batch manufacturing to providing the advantages of small lot sizes and the quick response customers are now demanding — and so many overseas companies are providing?
For most furniture companies, giant leaps are not part of reality. But there are some basic “baby steps” that can help a company better compete in the $8 billion furniture import market that continues to grow, and now approaches one-third of the total furniture sold at the manufacturing level in the U.S. They include:
• improving set-up time reduction throughout the manufacturing process,
• workplace organization focused on the elimination of all wasted motion while facilitating a clean, safe, work environment,
• active, employee involved preventive maintenance,
• quality management dedicated to providing clear, written requirements and visual management tools wherever possible.
Making set-up time reduction a priority
The grand model of small lot production that has spurred so much activity in industrial America and the rest of the world is the Toyota Production System, developed over a period of years, and still being improved. While the comment is frequently heard that cars and furniture are completely different, it would be tough to argue that making a car is easier than making furniture. Two people are credited for developing the Toyota system. Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo were the masterminds of what became the most important manufacturing system since Henry Ford created the assembly line. Mr. Shingo, in particular, developed the concept of Single Minute Exchange of Dies [SMED], or having all set-ups reduced to one minute or less. It has been reported that Mr. Shingo felt that between 80% and 90% of the success that Toyota has had was the result of the company’s ability to be effective at SMED. This clearly relates to the challenge of small lot production in the furniture industry. Even in the good old days when lot sizes in production routinely numbered 200 plus, set-up time on many types of equipment exceeded actual run time. As the demand to reduce lot sizes increases, the need to reduce set-up time will continue to be a driving force in the move towards CNC equipment for the furniture industry. That does not mean, however, that only those that can afford large equipment will succeed.
The ORE program
We all have heard of the time-proven formulas for improving response time in the manufacturing process: TEI - Total Employee Involvement; CIM - Computer Integrated Manufacturing; JIT - Just In Time Manufacturing; and TQM - Total Quality Management. These are not new concepts, but they are often proven winners helping to provide the avenues to customer satisfaction through faster response to orders. When one or more of those formulas is not in the realm of reality for furniture and other woodworking-related manufacturing, alternatives are available. For example, Wayne Friedrich, an engineer in the Industrial Extension Service at North Carolina State University, developed a process of set-up time reduction called ORE, for Organize, Reduce, and Eliminate. The ORE program has been utilized by dozens of North Carolina manufacturers with such success that Friedrich assures companies a 50% reduction in set-up time on the first attempt! These improvements have been made on traditional woodworking equipment such as double-end tenoners, moulders and profile shapers as well as on huge die presses in the metal working industry and gravure presses in the printing industry.
The basics of the ORE program are not difficult to apply. Consider these ingredients.
• Management commitment is the key. Without that…forget the rest.
• Form an executive team to guide the facility-wide set-up reduction process. Make sure the team is cross-functional! This means they understand the wide range of production procedures and technology.
• Identify the first project and pick one with good prospects for success.
• Pick a team to work on the first project, including the person[s] that currently does the set-ups; a maintenance person with good tool making capability; a person with engineering skills/responsibility; a QC person and, most importantly, a team facilitator that is a true set-up time reduction champion.
• Video tape the actual set-up.
• Get started on improvement!
The ORE acronym refers to Organize—getting the entire set-up process in order, particularly before the set-up actually begins and while the process is still working on the current cycle. Reduce elements in the set-up process; don’t do anything that isn’t absolutely needed. Eliminate adjustments after the set-up is made, which can account for 50% of the set-up time.
The easiest part of the equation is organization and can be accomplished quickly with these few rules.
1. Use video techniques to observe the set-up process.
2. Develop teams and team skills to work on the projects.
3. Have raw materials ready to go when a set-up is about to start.
4. Always have the necessary tools close to the set-up.
5. Mark, arrange and store tools effectively.
6. Use one touch tools whenever possible.
7. Have plenty of tools and tooling.
8. Use clamps, pins, and any safe, time saving device you can.
9. Develop and follow written procedures and continuously work to make them better.
10. Empower set-up people; let them be decision makers.
11. PM-PM-PM-PM-PM! [PM = Preventive Maintenance].
12. Eliminate judgment calls [use gauges whenever possible]!
13. Never give up!
Next month, Steve Walker discusses Work Place Organization and Preventive Maintenance in the second of this two-part series on Winning Strategies for Small Lot Manufacturing.
Steve Walker is case goods extension specialist, The Furniture Manufacturing and Management Center, North Carolina State University. He is currently developing a furniture specific management training program. Walker can be contacted at NC State by phone: 919-515-6419. Fax: 919-515-1543, or by e-mail at walker1@eos.ncsu.edu.
Please contact webmaster@modernwoodworking.com with your comments.
