Lean Manufacturing strives to produce at the market demand rate, keeping channel inventories low.  In order to avoid the large lot sizes and high inventory levels necessitated by costly changeovers, changeovers must be a focus of continuous reduction efforts.  Rapid Changeover (also known as SMED) is a rational, structured approach to minimizing changeover time and costs.  It involves process operators as well as maintenance specialists in the tasks of:

• Analyzing changeover techniques
• Externalizing changeover activities where possible
• Minimizing "internal changeover activities where possible
• Organizing the team to maximize efficiency

TQS provides a comprehensive program of core and optional elements that can be tailored to your organization's unique requirements.  The program consists of classroom instruction in principles and techniques, followed by application projects (including video tape analysis of existing techniques) carried-out by your personnel, mentored by an experienced implementation specialist, in your facility.  In this way your personnel obtain much more than "book learning"-they learn to apply the techniques in your environment.

Click here Information Request  to request more information on our training/implementation programs.