Based in Co. Sligo, Avenue Mould specialises in the design, manufacture, and validation of high-precision, multi-cavity plastic injection moulds, and contract injection moulding to the medical device, diagnostic, and pharmaceutical industries.
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Mould changes are a common occurrence on the moulding machines at least once a day with an average of 3.5 hours to complete, but sometimes up to six hours to complete. The aim of the project was to reduce the changeover time for moulds by 40% and to increase capacity on each machine and overall productivity of their moulding operation.
Based on an in-depth analysis we decided to implement a Lean Green Belt training programme, where we initiated a project to reduce the time taken to change a mould on a machine. Standard problem-solving tools were used to establish the root causes of downtime and losses. The SMED process was completed on three production tools as part of the project, including standardisation of fittings and assigning specific tools to each mould, and removing wasteful process steps.