Set-up time reduction at Stamping Station 1 of Tri-R Allied Industries Incorporated

The study was conducted at Tri-R Allied Industries Incorporated, a metal stamping company focused on automotive parts for cars and motorcycles, situated at Brgy. Puting Kahoy, Silang, Cavite. This paper focused on set-up time reduction in Stamping Station 1, the largest among the stamping stations consisted of 17 machines. With the aim of continuous improvement, the company would want to increase productivity through eliminating non-value adding activities within the production. Hence, several tools including work sampling, fishbone diagram, and flow process chart were used to analyze the problem. Consequently, various lean manufacturing tools and principles were utilized to address the objective. Based from observations and historical data gathered, set up consumed about 20.41 minutes and occurred on an average of 20.27 times daily as of January 2013. As a result, there was a daily loss of P2,500 to P5,000 attributed to the loss production hours spent in die set-up. To further understand, the elements of set-up time were identified to determine which among them contributed most in order to establish the focus of the formulated solution. It was concluded that extensive production planning together with application of 5S and SMED was one of the alternatives that can result up to 34% set -up time reduction. Furthermore, relocation of most frequently-used dies nearer the machines can reduce set up time by 24.89%. Long term alternatives such as acquisition of additional tools, lifters, and in-bolster die rollers and quick-release manual clamps were also considered as they can reduce the duration of set-up by 31.57%, however, with corresponding costs.