Quick Changeover - SMED

Facilitator’s Guide
Quick Changeover Overview, Parts 1 & 2
Learn what Quick Changeover and SMED are and why they are extremely important lean concepts for producers of
any product or service.

A step by step guide to presenting Gemba Academy’s 5S course to lean learners in all positions. This guide includes
key points, discussion items, quiz questions and answers, and helpful tips. Using Gemba Academy’s online learning
content, any facilitator can teach teams of people how to reduce changeover times by incredible amounts.
 Quick Changeover, Parts 1 & 2
Preparation and Lesson Plan
Use this page to prepare for each training session.

Resources
• Gemba Academy videos
• Online quizzes

Prepare for a Successful Training Session

• Watch videos and complete quizzes on your own at least one day before the training session.
• Read this guide thoroughly and become familiar with the course content before presenting to
others.
• Prepare a suitable training room for your participants.
• Prepare a computer with internet access and a projector or large screen. Test all equipment
before the training session.
• Have your Gemba Academy username and password ready.

U:_______________
P:_______________

• Choose your quiz style. The most popular option is to use the online interactive quiz,
answering questions as a group with open discussion. Another option is to print the PDF
version and have participants complete the quizzes individually.

Training Session Outline

• Step 1: Introduce the session topic and content to the participants.
• Step 2: Play a video.
• Step 3: Lead a group discussion using this guide. Review key
points, ask prepared questions and have participants fill in Choose Your Quiz
the blanks in their workbooks. Style
• Step 4: Take the quiz and review
responses.
• Step 5: Apply what has been learned
in your workplace.

When questions come up,

encourage other participants to
answer. Responding to questions
with “What does the team think?”
goes a long way to build
engagement.

Helpful
Tip

1
 Quick Changeover, Parts 1 & 2
Step 1: Session Overview
• Introduce the training topic.
• These modules explain what Quick Changeover is, what SMED is, why to use quick
changeover, and the 8 steps to Quick Changeover.

• Explain what to expect during this session.

In this session we will:
• Watch “Quick Changeover, Part 1” (10:30)
• Watch “Quick Changeover, Part 2” (7:48)
• Discuss what we learned from the video using the workbook
• Review the content with a quiz and talk about the results.

• Before you begin…

• Ask your participants if they have heard the term “quick changeover” before. If so, can they
explain it?

Step 2: Play “Quick Changeover, Part 1”

Step 3: Review Key Points

What is Quick Changeover?

• A changeover is the amount of time taken to change a piece of equipment from producing the
last good piece of a production lot to the first good piece of a production lot.
• To see a fast changeover, watch a pit crew at a Formula 1 or NASCAR race: the ability to get a
car back on the track as quickly as possible can mean the difference between winning and
losing.
• Producers have similar goals: we need to get our equipment or value-added processes up and
running as quickly as possible.
• If a new production lot produces a bad part, the changeover is not complete and the downtime
is wasted.

What is SMED?
• SMED stands for Single Minute Exchange of Dies. It is a system focused on dramatically
reducing the time it takes to perform changeovers or setups.
• SMED was developed 50 years ago by Shigeo Shingo, who worked for Toyota as a consultant.
Toyota needed to reduce the inventory of automative stampings and began looking for ways to
perform changeovers more efficiently. Shingo collaborated with Toyota engineers to reduce a
four-hour changeover on a thousand-ton press to less than 3 minutes.
• This example was documented in Shingo’s book, “A Revolution in Manufacturing: The SMED
System”.

2
 Quick Changeover, Parts 1 & 2
• Most of the focus of SMED is on basic workplace organization and planning. It’s estimated that
80% of the improvements from SMED are related to basic 5S concepts.

Why Use Quick Changeover?

• QC reduces lead-time and increases velocity. You’re able to create value faster when your
machines are running, not sitting idle, allowing you to increase customer satisfaction and grow
your business.
• QC reduces lot sizes, which reduces lead-time; much of the lead-time through processes is
nothing but waiting or queue time.
• QC improves on-time delivery performance. If companies have long changeover times, they’re
more likely to keep one machine running for longer. If companies have shorter changeover
times, they’re more likely to make more machines run more frequently.
• QC also reduces inventory. Companies often determine lot sizes by looking at the total
operational time per item they produce, which leads to massive inventories that may not be
purchased.

Step 4: Play “Quick Changeover Overview, Part 2”

Step 5: Review Key Points

Why Use Quick Changeover? (Continued)

• Instead of arbitrarily increasing order sizes, some companies use the Economic Order Quantity
formula, which looks at the relationship between the cost of holding material and ordering or
producing it.
• “This concept (EOQ) conceals an enormous blind spot: the unspoken assumption that
drastic reductions in setup times are impossible.” -Dr. Shigeo Shingo
• When setup times are dramatically reduced, the impact of increased lot sizes decreases as well.
• QC also enables production leveling (heijunka).

8 Steps to Quick Changeover

1. Document reality
2. Separate internal and external tasks
3. Shift internal tasks to external ones
4. Streamline all external tasks
5. Identify parallel tasks
6. Streamline all internal tasks
7. Practice the new setup
8. Document the new standard

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 Quick Changeover, Parts 1 & 2
Step 6: Quiz
1. Formally defined in manufacturing terms, a changeover is simply the amount of time taken to
change a piece of equipment from producing the last good piece of a production lot to the first good
piece of the next production lot.
True
False

2. “SMED” stands for Single Minute __________ of Dies.

Excess
Examination
Externalize
Exchange

3. _____ was the first to discover the power of SMED as a consultant to the Toyota Motor Corporation.
Shigeo Shingo
Sakichi Toyoda
W. Edwards Deming
Taiichi Ohno

4. Most of the focus of SMED is focused on purchasing new fixtures and equipment.
True
False

5. Please select all the benefits of quick changeover.

Improves on-time delivery
Enables heijunka (production leveling)
Helps reduce the number of people needed
Reduces inventory
Reduces lead-time

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 Quick Changeover, Parts 1 & 2
6. External tasks are tasks that can only be done when the machine is NOT running.
True
False

7. The eighth step in the changeover roadmap presented in the video and PDF summary document
is:
Have a pizza party
Report results to management
Practice the setup
Document the new standard

Step 7: Reflection
Give your participants 10-15 minutes to fill out the reflection questions at the end of their
workbooks. When they’ve finished, have a short discussion with them. Now that you know better
what quick changeover is and what goes into it, how do you think it will benefit your company? How
would it benefit you personally? Spend 5-10 minutes discussing.