- \n
- SMED gains often erode within a few months, without anyone noticing.<\/li>\n
- Track every changeover, by machine and by shift, with the rules used in the project.<\/li>\n
- Reviews at 3 and 6 months decide: validate the standard or relaunch a targeted workshop.<\/li>\n
- A posted standard, newcomer training and short routines keep the gain over time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
What the SMED method says about the follow-up<\/h2>\n
GH Training, a French training provider specialising in lean management and Lean Six Sigma, published La m\u00e9thode SMED : Tout comprendre<\/a> (in French). The article recalls the origin of the method (created by Shigeo Shingo, an engineer at Toyota) and its goal, bringing a changeover from several hours down to under 10 minutes, then describes its four steps: measure the current state, move as many internal operations as possible to external, reduce the time of internal tasks and, finally, continuous improvement. On that last step, the wording is clear: “Le but est de continuer \u00e0 am\u00e9liorer les temps de changement de s\u00e9rie en pilotant un indicateur associ\u00e9 [\u2026]” (in other words: the aim is to keep improving changeover times by tracking an associated indicator).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Their article provides the method. This one focuses on the indicator in step 4: how to build it so that it shows, changeover by changeover, whether the project gain is holding, and when it starts to slip. For how data supports the SMED project itself, see our article SMED: How to Reduce Changeover Time and Improve OEE with Data<\/a>. Here we assume the changeover definition is already set: from the last good part of the outgoing run to the first good part at nominal speed.<\/p>\n
Why the time you gained comes back<\/h2>\n
Shop floor teams know the pattern. On the day of the project review, the timed changeover is impressive. Three months later, nobody has timed it again, and the general feeling is that “it is more or less holding”. The causes of drift are rarely dramatic:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Not every shift follows the standard.<\/strong> The team that took part in the project uses the new sequence; the night shift, or the temp who arrived after the training, goes back to old habits.<\/li>\n
- External operations become internal again.<\/strong> The tooling cart is no longer prepared before the stop, the next tool is not preheated, the wrench is not in its place: each slip adds minutes of machine downtime.<\/li>\n
- Adjustment quietly gets longer.<\/strong> Trial runs and tweaks after restart creep up, ramp-up stretches out, and a stopwatch that only times the stop does not see it.<\/li>\n
- Nobody looks at the indicator at the right level.<\/strong> Changeover time is tracked as a monthly average for the whole shop. One drifting machine disappears among the others.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In every case, the problem is not the method. It is the lack of a measurement fine enough to see the drift before it settles in.<\/p>\n
![\"Four-step](\"https:\/\/teeptrak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/teeptrak-smed-durabilite-en.png\")
<\/figure>\nMeasure every changeover, machine by machine<\/h2>\n
To sustain a SMED gain, the indicator must be calculated for every changeover, on every machine involved, with the same rules used during the project. A monthly shop average is not enough: it smooths out exactly what you are trying to see. The table below sums up what to track after the project.<\/p>\n
- External operations become internal again.<\/strong> The tooling cart is no longer prepared before the stop, the next tool is not preheated, the wrench is not in its place: each slip adds minutes of machine downtime.<\/li>\n
- Not every shift follows the standard.<\/strong> The team that took part in the project uses the new sequence; the night shift, or the temp who arrived after the training, goes back to old habits.<\/li>\n