Setup Reduction

Setup Reduction is a technique useful for level load balancing, a key strategy for lean
deployment.

Setup Time is defined as the time to change from the last item of the previous order to the
first good item of the next order.

Setup includes preparation, replacement, location and adjustment activities (see below).

When analyzing setup activities, note whether the activity is internal or external. Internal
setup activities require an inactive (shut down) process, meaning that no orders can be run
while the setup activity is taking place. External setup activities may be done while the
process is operational. They are offline activities.

Incredible reductions is total setup time have been realized simply by making internal
activities external activities. The following four-step approach may be used to reduce setup
times (ref: Lean Six Sigma, by M. George, 2002, McGraw Hill):

1. Classify each setup step as either Internal or External. Internal steps are those done
while the process is inactive. External steps are done while the process is operating.
2. Convert Internal steps to External steps. We want to reduce the time the process is
non-operational, so we need to reduce the time associated with the Internal steps. The
quickest way to do this is to do as many of these steps as we can while the process is
operational. For example, if we can collect the money from the customer as their burgers
are being cooked, then the total cycle time is reduced.
3. Reduce time for remaining Internal steps. There are some Internal steps that cannot
be done while the process is operational. We now want to concentrate on reducing the time
required to complete those steps that require the process to be delayed. For example, since
the burgers cannot be cooked until we know what the customer wants to order, we will try
to reduce the time it takes to place the customer order.
4. Eliminate adjustments. Adjustments, as discussed in the Analyze stage, can be
reduced through effective process control. Designed Experiments may be used to
understand the causes of process variation that precede the adjustment.

A Pareto Diagram can be useful to prioritize the setup time reduction. In the example
shown, Location dominates the setup, so is a natural target for improvement.