​Setup and Changeover Reduction

Setup and Changeover Reduction efforts can greatly improve production and allow flexibility between different product runs.  Recognizing the importance and urgent nature of reducing the time of these activities will translate to enabling greater throughput levels.  A constant focus is required to not only reduce these times but also sustain.
 
Statements of Work

A mill had baselined their startup activities at slightly over 2 hours before yielding production.  Strategy3 assessed all activities performed and validated that indeed it was taking them in excess of 2 hours to start the lines.  Strategy3 began quantifying startup activities that could be performed prior to end-of-shift for the subsequent next day’s production.  By minimizing activities which were contributing to downtime, Strategy3 was able to train the workforce on how to parallel tasks, thereby reducing the total startup activity.  Each operator on the line was given a daily startup task list, inclusive of task or sequence number within the startup.  By allocating defined tasks to defined positions and operators on the line, the mill was able to reduce the startup to just 37 minutes, from 120.  This almost 70% reduction in startup time translated into additional throughput and led to record first production hour volumes.
 
A distributor had a classic conveyor line for processing and loading orders.  Due to the staffing and scheduling practices, the first truck would be fully loaded by 9:00pm each night.  By going to more of a staggered startup approach through optimizing the workforce activities, a smoother startup resulted.  The first truck each evening was finally loaded by 7:30pm – shaving 1.5 hours of startup each shift.