SMED in the North American Secondary Wood Products Industry

To minimize the negative impact of set-up activities on production, Lean manufacturing focuses on reducing set-up time through targeted Kaizen (SMED) efforts. Successful set-up time reduction efforts allow manufacturers to reduce their lead-time and their work in process inventory (WIP), while increasing their capacity, among other things. To find out about practices in the secondary wood products industry, a survey conducted by Virginia Tech in collaboration with a trade magazine investigated the secondary wood products industry practices and the success rate of set-up time reduction efforts on widely used basic woodworking machines including moulders, table saws, shapers, and band saws. Overall, participants indicated their set-up time reduction efforts were successful and resulted in quite sizable degrees of improvement. Only 14% of respondents indicated that no improvements were made through set-up time reduction efforts in their facility. Eighty-six percent of respondents, conversely, indicated improvements ranging from “0-4.9%” to “More than 15%.” Participants also indicated that their set-up time reduction efforts paid back in the form of productivity gains and increased responsiveness to customer demand.