ABSTRACT
In short, the purpose of SMED is to make setup a standard, routine operation.
Shigeo Shingo introduced SMED after 19 years of observing setup operations in factories. It was initially developed to improve die press and machine tool setups. Setup time is calculated as the time between the last good piece of product A being completed until the fi rst good piece of product B is completed. This includes the time to change materials, tools, fi xtures, dies, etc.
