Understanding the hidden cost and identifying the root causes of changeover impacts

A Changeover is the set of operations required to switch from producing one product to another and it includes both setup and cleaning operations. Changeovers are especially critical for multi-product environments where flexibility, time and quality are key requirements of the manufacturing system. A range of environmental and economic impacts occur during changeover operations and quite frequently the magnitude and extend of these are not fully captured by manufacturing companies. However, information gathered from the literature and factories suggest that these impacts could drastically reduce the sustainability performance of companies through creating waste streams. Furthermore, reduced economic and environmental performance of the companies impairs social and industrial desire to achieve sustainable systems. This research focuses on how companies can develop capabilities to evaluate and monitor their changeover performance, as well as understanding the causes of these impacts and how can they be mitigated. In this paper, the underlying factors and root causes of changeover impacts will be discussed. Results from the case studies suggest that, it is possible to capture changeover losses by using a mass balance approach. In addition to this, twelve factors were identified as the main influencers of changeover performance and further analysis of these twelve factors provided three root causes that determines the changeover performance. Identification of these factors and causes was expected to help industry to improve their changeover performance by highlighting the key areas to focus on and hence improve firms' sustainability performance.