Races are won and lost in the pits. Only 3.37 seconds separated the 1st and 10th cars in the Daytona 500 this year. That's why a NASCAR jackman can make over $350,000 per year.

Whenever your process isn't running, you are not making any money. Even minor time losses add up to big money losses. All it takes to lose a week of annual production is 10 minutes of daily downtime.

Simply put, you just do not have time for downtime. You need to make your changeovers more like pitstops.

Improvement requires 3 steps:

1 - Measure: If you don't know how much time you are losing, you can't know how much time you have gained. You also need to know where the time is being lost. Documentation? Cleaning? Warehouse releases? You also need know where your losses occur. If you are spending 20 minutes on setup, then waiting an hour for materials, the warehouse, not the mechanics should be the first concern.

2 - Analyze: Pareto your losses and analyze them. Why is the warehouse taking an hour to deliver materials for the next run? The "why" leads straight into improvement. If the problem is that adjustments are not done precisely, leading to excess startup time while the mechanics tinker, you need to look at how to implement precision adjustments.

3 - Implement: Carrying out steps 1 & 2 will give you a nice warm feeling. So will a hot tub. If that is all you are looking for, go with the hot tub. It's cheaper and less stressful. Once you have identified the improvements, implement them. Equally important, you need to sustain the gains.

At Changeover.com we will help you with all 3 steps, including sustainability. We focus on lean, rather than quick, changeover. Quick changeover too often focuses on doing the same things but faster. We believe this can never lead to permanent improvement and may even be counterproductive in the short run.

Lean changeover focuses on reducing changeover time by applying the lean manufacturing philosophy of reducing waste. We believe changeover should be ESEE (pronounced easy): Eliminate, Simplify, Externalize, Execute.

Changeover.com offers a range of services to help you achieve your operational excellence goals. These are detailed on the What we do page.

All services are provided in English or Spanish.