Our machines must become even better and more efficient! – This is a typical thinking of many entrepreneurs when it comes to increasing profitability in their production operations. At the same time, however, many companies often accept long set-up times and the associated disadvantages such as high batch sizes and inventories, low flexibility and, of course, downtimes. And it is precisely here that there is great potential for savings: set-up processes take up a highly underestimated part of the production processes and thus also of the costs, because during set-up times, production comes to a standstill – and standstill is time during which no money is earned.

• The variety of products has increased considerably in the past.
• Customers therefore order the items they need in smaller batches.
• In order to respond to these demands, batch sizes must be continuously reduced.
• Conversely, this means that flexible and fast changeover is required for the production of the various articles.
• Since a set-up process involves losses in availability, it is important to keep these set-up processes as short as possible in terms of time.

Basically, in Lean Management, set-up is considered a waste, as it is idle time that does not add value and must be minimised as much as possible. Here we look at the number and duration of set-up processes. Every unscheduled setup costs planned production time, which results in significant productivity losses. How often are unscheduled changes to production plans made in your company? This is where set-up matrices come into play, creating an awareness of the optimal set-up sequence. The set-up time is divided into internal set-up time (that is, time portions of the set-up that can only be done when the machine is at a standstill, such as changing a film roll) and external set-up time (time portions of the set-up that can also be done when the machine is running).

We uncover your hidden potential for cost reduction through set-up time optimisation! The targeted reduction of these set-up times can reduce downtimes due to machine stoppages by up to 60 percent, saving your company time and money. On top of that, the production processes become much more flexible and enable your company to produce small batch sizes or make more frequent product changes. This more flexible plant utilisation gives your company a major competitive advantage. In a practice-oriented workshop, your employees will receive the “tools” to reduce set-up times in your company at the same time. 40% set-up time optimisation after 1 week is easily possible. Fast set-up – the eight steps to “zero” set-up time.