Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2017, 63(8):370-379 | DOI: 10.17221/69/2016-AGRICECON

Integration of the SMED for the improvement of the supply chain management of spare parts in the food sectorOriginal Paper

Jorge LOZANO¹, Juan Carlos SAENZ-DIEZ², Eduardo MARTINEZ¹, Emilio JIMENEZ², Julio BLANCO^*,1

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of la Rioja, Logrono, Spain

² Department of Electrical Engineering, University of la Rioja, Logrono, Spain

The Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) methodology is well-known. A great variety of studies in the field of manufacturing and production process use it, but there are few applications of this methodology in the area of the supply chain management. In the paper, the philosophy of the SMED methodology is applied to the part of the supply chain that includes the spare parts and fixtures in the food sector. This involves studying the relationship with the supplier of the installation of spare parts and fixture on the machine. The study shows how the spare parts management has several phases: the coordination and purchase of the spare parts to the supplier, the storage of these spare parts, the coordination of these spare parts and the scheduled maintenance, and the installation of these spare parts on the machine. The implantation of the developed working methodology has obtained a relevant improvement in the coordination and management of the spare parts. In such a way, that storage time has been reduced (inside the company's storages) and the performance has been increased, focusing on and detailing the maintenance task and scheduling the available resources.

Keywords: food industry, inventory management, SMED, spare parts management, supply chain management

Published: August 31, 2017  Show citation