Example Of Standard Operating Procedures Essay

Scope

Massive setup reduction is a basic requirement in the adoption of Just in Time. Minimizing setups is required to pave the way for other element of Just in Time, from level loading to overlapping operations to pull systems and to quality at the source.

Objective

Materials
The procedure simply requires employee involvement and teamwork. Organization and timing are keys to the success of this project.

Equipment

Some engineers reduce setup times with technology by purchasing items such as rolling bolsters, hydraulic clamping devices, or infrared guard systems. However, this process goes against the main ground rule which is to render minimal setup time without any cost. Hence, the focus will be on the people within the company. Employee involvement and teamwork approach will be the best option to implement.

Documentation

A project team will have two to four setup individuals which makes them the largest group in the team. These individuals would be assisted by one or two individuals from technical or engineering community.
When a machine is required for setup reduction, the company must identify who from the technical community is an expert in the use of certain equipment. It can be a process engineer, a tool-design engineer, or someone from the maintenance team, or even a combination of everything.

Engineering must not lose control of what transpires on the shop floor.

Any idea coming from the shop floor that is deemed worthy of being pursued, must be implemented with the best possible tool-design and engineering principles, and that any modifications or alterations made must not compromise safety or even the quality of requirements.
People must support rather than dominate and must ask the right questions and steer the shop floor experts toward the right answers.
A team leader is required to round out the team. The team leader must relate well with others and must have a clear idea of what political and management processes are within the organization, so that turf issues that might hinder successful adoption can be surpassed.

There will be seven steps to this process. This involves the following:

The management must sign off on all the ground rules.
A setup must be chosen, both in terms of the machine and the particular changeover to work on.
A team and a team leader should be chosen.
The team must undergo training.
The current actual setup requires documentation in the form of a videotape.
The tape must be examined in detail by the team.
Ideas for how to make the changeover faster, usually develop during the analysis of the videotape, should be implemented.
Safety
Area supervisors must not be made full-time members of the setup reduction team because the personality of the supervisor might cause the setup people to sit back and expect the supervisor to take over and be the main focus. This tends to inhibit the setup people from generating ideas. Another reason is that supervisors have the tendency to have the worst attendance records of any member of the team because they are up to their eyeballs in other things all the time. Assign a team leader.

Records

Document the entire process through a videotape.
Description
Minimizing setup process requires teamwork and employee involvement. Moreover, the right people must be assigned in every team.

This SOP was written by: ______________________________

This SOP was formatted by: ______________________________
This SOP was reviewed by: ______________________________
This SOP was authorized by: ______________________________