ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the ways that companies have traditionally dealt with setups and discusses techniques for reducing the time and effort of setup, and procedures for conducting setup reduction projects. Improvements of the magnitude happen all the time in companies where setup-time reduction is a priority. Companies have traditionally sought to keep the number of setups to a minimum. Simplifying setup procedures and reducing setup times provide the following benefits: quality, costs, flexibility, capacity and lead times, and process variability. In any particular situation, most of the experience gained in reducing setup times at a few operations or machines can be readily transferred to setup-reduction projects at other operations and machines. Each setup-reduction project should be undertaken within the context of a larger, ongoing setup-reduction program. Setup operation should be scheduled in advance so that machines, tools, parts, materials, and workers will be ready when needed.
