ABSTRACT

Traditionally, managers and manufacturing engineers have failed to devote their full abilities to the analysis of setup operations. The several techniques are effective in ensuring that operations that can be conducted as external setup are, in fact, performed while the machine is running. The first step in converting setup operations is to prepare operating conditions beforehand. When defective goods show up as a result, the die is hurriedly removed, and further repairs are made, interrupting production. The rack room is one such arrangement, in which dies are stored on three-dimensional racks, and automated equipment is used to store the dies and send them off on conveyors to the appropriate machines. This kind of automated storage system reduces the number of man-hours needed for external setup. Consequently, it does not directly help us achieve the Single-Minute Exchange of Die objective, and should be used only when control of a large number of unwieldy dies is very difficult.