Strategies for Reducing Changeover Time in NPK Fertilizer Production at X Fertilizer Plant in Vietnam

抄録

Currently, responsiveness and reduced lead times are not only desirable attributes for make-toorder businesses, but they are also important for maketo-stock businesses looking to grow their long-term competitiveness. One of the challenges facing the production managers is changeover time, which needs to be addressed. This study aims at demonstrating how the SMED methodology may be used to decrease changeover time in the production process at the X plant, which is a typical fertilizer company in Vietnam. With the implementation, the changeover time is reduced by approximately 37.48%, from 707 minutes to 442 minutes. By differentiating between external and internal setup work, converting internal setups to external ones, and optimizing the entire process, the study identifies important inefficiencies and provides targeted fixes. These include rearranged process steps, quicker sample analysis methods, and enhanced cleaning equipment, all of which contributed to enhanced production efficiency. Overall, this study highlights the managerial value of SMED, stressing the need of using data to identify bottlenecks, standardizing processes to ensure consistency, and encouraging a continuous improvement mindset through ongoing analysis. Fertilizer production facilities can significantly increase production efficiency and overall performance by implementing this strategy across departments.