Do you remember our first SMED challenge?

The client was a sealing systems manufacturer for the automotive industry. Their main objective is the continuous improvement in terms of product quality, cost efficiency and customer service levels. Although they were improving in flexibility, it wasn´t enough for them. Due to this, they decided to challenge Ennomotive to further reduce the set-up time of one of their rubber extrusion lines from 36 to 20 minutes.  The challenge was launched with a video of the full set-up process. As the line was 110m long, with a high number of machines and changes on each one, there were many optimization possibilities. 33 solvers from more than 15 countries (Philippines, USA, United Kingdom, Morocco, India, Bahrain, Sweden, Pakistan, Mexico...) proposed a variety of solutions, based on tasks reorganization and use of different tools to facilitate and accelerate changes, change of parameters... There were many solutions that reduced the set up time, but the winning solutions have reduced the set up time in more than a 50%! Let´s meet the winners!! First winner: Artur Czajkowski
 Artur Czajkowski,with an engineering background from one of the best Polish technical universities, had actually leaded few SMED projects at Philips Lighting and Saint Gobain. Up to now, he had never participated in any engineering challenge, so he decided to try this new experience and show his knowledge. By winning this challenge, he hopes to be more recognized now and he is going to try to change his job to Lean Manager! "I focused on reducing time and tried not to interfere too much into production itself. When I watched the video, I saw some clear solutions known from SMED Training (wasted time for walking, actions which could be easily moved before changeover, etc). I saw that they needed someone to show a different approach". - Artur said. "By working with Ennomotive, it is possible for a company to have a highly-trained professional looking over the project with a new perspective and no biases." Stephen Sikorski
Second winner: Stephen Sikorski is a Lean Six Sigma Sensei from Brooklyn. He decided to participated in this challenge to experience how to improve a SMED  project via online. "It was a fun and unique experience for me to do something that I do very often but with the challenge of not having available to me so many of the things I take for granted." -Stephen said. "I also think that the whole Ennomotive concept in general is incredible. It gives people like me a chance to make extra money and express my creativity without commitment, while the client gets the best work of thirty or so engineers. It's a win win all around. I can't wait till I have some free time and can take the next challenge". We hope you find these stories inspiring and we encourage you to participate in the next engineering challenges! Join us and experience with real engineering challenges!