Driver Four: Insignificant Changeover

In every manufacturing operation, equipment and facilities must be changed from one setup to another. The reader who may be savvy in world class manufacturing concepts and techniques may wonder why I haven't used one of the more common terms in addressing this matter such as quick setup or SMED (single-minute exchange of dies) when addressing this subject. The reason is because SMED and other such techniques are, again, tools rather than drivers or principles. What manufacturing operations must recognize is that since setup and changeover is one of the more substantial wastes in manufacturing they need to methodically go about making setup and changeover insignificant in terms of the length of time it takes to process parts, components, and finished units. Consider the following:

If most manufacturing operations could completely eliminate all their setup and changeover, they typically could reduce their assigned manufacturing costs by up to 20 percent or more.

Assuming there is some truth to this statement, how does a manufacturing operation go about reducing setup and changeover and at what point is setup and changeover deemed to be insignificant? I'll briefly address the latter question first and then move into a broader discussion on how to get started in reducing setup and changeover.