ABSTRACT
Single Minute (or digit) Exchange of Dies (SMED) developed by Dr. Shigeo Shingo, has been the process used for many years by countless manufacturing plants to reduce the amount of time a machine is shut down to complete a changeover. Product manufacturers, company officers, engineers, technicians, and machine operators around the globe can validate that the SMED system works. Additionally, consumers worldwide have profited by the application of SMED, because when production downtime is reduced, products can be manufactured at lower costs, and lower costs can mean lower retail prices. Reducing the time of the changeover allows the company to produce more product and increase profits; that is the sole purpose of SMED. SMED is a time-driven process, which means that the changeover tasks that require the most time to complete are generally addressed first.
