Group Product Runs to Increase Changeover Efficiencies

May 14, 2013

Changeover is defined as the work and time involved between making the last good product of one recipe and making the next good product from a different recipe at normal production speed. When it comes to a conveyor line, changeover tasks typically involve guide rail changes.

The first premise to understand when designing a multi-SKU manufacturing conveyor line is that in order to reduce or eliminate changeover, the guide rails need to be set for a group of products. Typically, the guide rail opening will be set to the largest product size running on the line, and similar sizes will travel within that guide rail setting without changing the rail setting.

In planning for a reduced or no changeover conveyor line, find the grouping of products that will work for the minimum amount of changeovers. Further, whenever possible, schedule runs with minimal changeover back to back to increase line efficiency.

For more information about eliminating and removing changeover, download our white paper, “How to Increase Conveyor Line Efficiencies by Eliminating Changeover.”