To maintain production in high salaries countries and strength in competition against other companies, it is today more important than ever to maximize production, offer a wide spectra of products and be able to deliver on the customers desire of shorter and shorter delivery time. Flexible production and short time spent on die changes is vital to achieve these desires. The interest for die changeover time reduction grew in the same pace as the demand for increased product variety grew. SMED as a method of reducing time spent on die changeovers were developed in between 1950-1970, by the Japanese Shigeo Shingo.

The purpose of this thesis work has been to investigate the result of SMED in a die casting facility, and compare the result from it with the result considering time spent on die changeovers when investing in new equipment. The goal is to implement a thorough investigation by using the SMED method at Tenhults Pressgjuteri AB and make a brochure that have to be simple to understand, in purpose to draw interest to the advantages of using SMED as a method.

Commissioned by the Swedish foundry association Swecast, the work has been carried out by studying die changeovers at Tenhults Pressgjuteri AB, where filming and interviews with the operators have been included in the analysis. Meetings have been held with Husqvarna AB about their expected earnings on there new investment.

The work with analyzing die changeovers resulted in following suggestions of improvement:

• Manuals of adjustments to the sprayer

• Rapid couplings to the warmth- and cooling hoses

• Eliminating the work of adjustment when changing the ladle

• Introduced a combined spanner- torque wrench

• Manuals to the mechanical lock

The total theoretical improvement of these measures, along with routines for making outside exchange of die before the machine was shut downed, became a reduction of time spent on die changeover with 60%, from 167 minutes to 66 minutes. That corresponds to a capacity/possible sale increase with 3030 SEK/changeover.

The conclusion of this survey is that investing in new equipment is not the best way to gain capacity. Better results can be made just by working with die changeovers on the present machines. If a company has worked with reducing time spent on die changeovers before, and is about to replace an old machine, it could be a cause to invest in new technological details to make the work with die changeovers less complicated.