SMED methodology implementation in a manual process: Case study in an industry of the Oil and Gas sector

Lead Time reduction in productive processes through the decrease of the activities that don't add value to the product is one of the Lean Manufacturing main purposes. This work has the objective of proposing an application of one of the Lean tools, the SMED methodology, in a manual process of an oil and gas sector company. As starting point was elaborated the flowchart of the activities of the superficial treatment department of the factory, and identified that the activity with larger negative impact on Lead Time was the sandblasting. Besides, this stage presented an OEE of 10,97%, as well as a poor performance in other relevant indicators of disponibility and efficiency. A chronoanalysis of the activities was made and separated the activities that added value and the setup activities from the total time. Thus, the SMED methodology was applied, eliminating or reducing setup activities, besides converting external setup into internal. Although the 10 minutes set-up time was not reached, as proposed by the methodology, there were significant reductions in the setup time and in the distance traveled by the operator during the activity