SETUP TIME IMPROVEMENT FOR A FASTENER MANUFACTURING PROCESS

Abstract

The objective of this research is to reduce setup time of bolt forming process in a fastener manufacturing company. The essential requirement to improve setup time arises from value stream mapping of current production process. Cause and effect diagram is used for problem analysis of setup operation. The improvement area of this research is selected by weight score matrix based on information from the analysis. Methodology is divided into three phases; planning phase, improvement phase and implementation phase. Basis and necessary information of this research are defined in planning phase. In improvement phase, setup time improvement framework is developed consisting of two steps improvement. The first step improvement applies a well-known tool for setup time reduction, Single minute exchange of dies (SMED). For the second step improvement, lean tools and techniques are used to further analyze setup operation and improve setup time including Pareto, Five Whys, Spaghetti diagram, and 5S. Finally, full improvement implementation is successfully performed in the implementation phase. As a result of this research’s improvement, setup time of bolt forming process is able to reduce from 4 hours and 9 minutes to 1 hour and 14 minutes. The total of 2 hours and 54 minutes is accounted for 70 percent in setup time reduction. Furthermore, the company gains various benefits including ability to produce smaller batch size in order to avoid overproduction, reduction of waiting time and inventory level, and improvement of production process flexibility and responsiveness.