Reena Sommer | 24 Sep 2025
For most manufacturing facilities, a major focus of their maintenance teams revolves around mitigating "unplanned downtime." This refers to unexpected equipment failures that bring production to a halt, leading to lost revenue and missed deadlines.
However, beneath this visible challenge lies another, more problematic drain on both time and efficiency: production changeovers. These are the often-overlooked periods when a production line must be reconfigured or adjusted to produce a different product or variant. While not as immediately disruptive as a sudden equipment breakdown, the cumulative impact of inefficient or prolonged changeovers can be just as detrimental to a company's bottom line and overall productivity. They represent a significant, yet frequently underestimated, opportunity for operational improvement.
On the surface, switching a line from one product to another looks routine. Yet, every extra minute spent cleaning, recalibrating, or fixing misaligned tools silently chips away at throughput and profitability.
Traditionally, preventive maintenance has been viewed as insurance against breakdowns. But its influence reaches further than most manufacturers realize. Well-maintained machines are not just less likely to fail; they are also cleaner, more precise, and easier to set up. This hidden benefit directly shapes the speed and reliability of changeovers, turning what was once an invisible bottleneck into an opportunity for competitive advantage.
When equipment is maintained correctly, setup tasks become faster and more consistent. Machines hold their calibration better, which means operators spend less time making adjustments during a changeover. Regular cleaning as part of a maintenance routine also prevents buildup that would otherwise slow down transitions.
The result is a smoother, more predictable changeover process that saves valuable production time. By connecting preventive maintenance with changeover planning, manufacturers can eliminate hidden inefficiencies that quietly drain productivity on a daily basis. This article explores how these hidden impacts shape changeovers and overall efficiency.
What are Production Changeovers?
A production changeover, often referred to as a setup change or line change, is a critical and routine procedure within the manufacturing sector. It involves the entire process of transitioning a production line or work cell from the manufacturing of one specific product or product variant to another. This often requires a comprehensive series of steps, which can include cleaning, retooling, recalibrating machinery, adjusting parameters, and often, a period of testing and validation to ensure the new setup is producing parts or products to the required specifications.
While an indispensable part of modern manufacturing, especially in industries with diverse product portfolios or custom orders, changeovers carry a substantial impact on operational efficiency and overall output. During the changeover period, the production line is typically idle or operating at significantly reduced capacity, leading to lost production time. This downtime directly translates to reduced throughput, increased lead times, and potentially, higher operational costs if not managed effectively. The frequency and duration of these changeovers are key metrics that manufacturers strive to optimize to maximize productivity and profitability.
Typical Steps Involved
Changeovers typically involve multiple steps: cleaning the equipment, exchanging tooling, calibration, adjusting machine settings, and performing quality checks. Each step in the line tells you that the line is prepared to produce the next batch defect-free.
Why These Steps Matter?
The time manufacturers spend on a changeover is time the line isn’t producing. Long changeovers necessitate increased downtime, added labor costs, and a decrease in throughput. In high-volume facilities, the little lost seconds add up fast.
Example of Changeover
Consider a mid-sized food processing plant that switches from producing bottled juice to flavored water. The lines need to be clean, the filters changed, and the labeling machines tweaked. Each transition costs time, and any downtime during these shifts contributes to system inefficiencies.
Preventive Maintenance - Beyond Machine Uptime
The Traditional View of Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is often seen only as a safeguard against unexpected breakdowns. The goal has been to keep machines running and prevent costly production interruptions.
A Broader Perspective
Preventive maintenance is no longer just about keeping things alive today. It also favours min-max operational process repeatability, such as production changeover time, an underestimated cause of time wastage.
How Preventive Maintenance Impacts Changeovers
Well-maintained machines are more available, cleaner, and precise, which means they are quicker to prepare for the next production run. Consistent maintenance reduces the need for extra cleaning, constant calibration, or unplanned repairs, making changeovers smoother and faster. This directly improves efficiency and overall equipment performance.
The Hidden Benefits of Preventive Maintenance on Changeovers
Together, these benefits reveal how preventive maintenance quietly facilitates faster and more reliable changeovers.
Reduced Setup Variability
Well-maintained machines operate within their tolerance. This reduces the time needed to adjust calibration during changeover. Operators can depend on consistent settings, reducing the setup time and minimizing possible mistakes that could affect production.
Cleaner Equipment, Faster Transitions
Preventive maintenance typically consists of scheduled inspections. Teams save time by cleaning before they have to trap dust and residue. A clean machine is also simpler to get back up and running, so a production line isn’t out of commission longer than it needs to be.
Tooling and Fixture Reliability
Tooling and fixtures are also an integral part of changeovers. Preventive Controls ensure these items function correctly and are ready for use. This minimises the possibility of sudden failure, urgent repairs, or new replacement work that can lead to prolonged downtime beyond planned timeframes.
Standardized Workflows
Preventive maintenance programs usually include detailed documentation of processes and best practices. Teams can minimize distractions and confusion when clear, repeatable steps are in place to guide changeovers. Standardization leads to predictability, and in the case of transitioning from one shift or operator to another, this facilitates smoother and more efficient transitions.
The Cost of Neglecting Preventive Maintenance
Failure to perform preventive maintenance can significantly prolong changeover times. This leads to increased expenses in terms of time, labor, and materials due to factors like additional cleaning, faulty tooling, and hurried calibrations. What might seem like a minor delay escalates into a substantial loss of capacity, higher costs, and growing frustration among production teams.
Calibration-Ready Machines: Precision from the Start
Preventive maintenance also contributes to keeping machines ready for calibrations, so there are fewer adjustments made when changing over. Since tools are already pre-set as much as possible, teams can get to work faster and avoid mistakes that could unnecessarily stop production.
Industry Case Example - Cutting Changeover Time with Preventive Maintenance
Applying Preventive Maintenance (PM) plays a pivotal role in optimizing production changeovers within manufacturing environments, leading to substantial improvements in efficiency, cost reduction, and overall operational performance. An illustration of this impact comes from a sustainability journal study that examined a ready-meal factory in South Yorkshire. This factory implemented SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Dies), a lean manufacturing methodology focused on reducing the time it takes to change over from producing the last good piece of one product to the first good piece of the next. The results were remarkable:
- Changeover Time Reduction: The factory successfully cut its changeover time by nearly 30%. This significant reduction directly translates to increased available production time, allowing for higher output and improved responsiveness to market demands.
- Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) Boost: Following the implementation of SMED, the factory's OEE rose above 70%. OEE is a critical metric that measures manufacturing productivity and accounts for availability, performance, and quality. An increase in OEE indicates better utilization of assets, fewer breakdowns, and improved product quality, all of which are positively influenced by effective preventive maintenance practices.
- Labor Cost Savings: The optimized changeover processes and increased efficiency also led to a trimming of labour costs by 10%. This saving is likely due to less overtime, reduced idle time for operators during changeovers, and a more streamlined workflow made possible by reliable, well-maintained equipment.
The success of this ready-meal factory highlights the relationship between preventive maintenance and lean manufacturing techniques like SMED. Preventive maintenance ensures that machinery is in optimal working condition, minimizing unexpected breakdowns and malfunctions that can derail changeover schedules and lead to costly delays. By proactively addressing potential issues, PM supports the smooth and rapid execution of changeovers, thereby enhancing productivity, lowering operational expenses, and ultimately contributing to a more sustainable and profitable manufacturing operation.
Metrics that Reveal the Impact
OEE and Changeovers
One key performance indicator to evaluate how well a production line is utilized is the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Preventive maintenance is also directly connected to OEE, enhancing machine uptime and performance at changeover. Less downtime and fewer quality issues occur when equipment is maintained correctly.
MTTR and MTBF
Mean time to repair (MTTR) and mean time between failures (MTBF) offer quick views on the efficiency of maintenance. By reducing the failure rate, manufacturers can increase MTBF. Also, by making the system easier and cheaper to repair, MTTR can be decreased. Collectively, these performance indicators indicate the impact of maintenance on the time and likelihood of failure during changeovers.
Setup Time Reduction with SMED
Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) is a lean manufacturing approach that reduces setup times and improves overall productivity. Preventive maintenance supports SMED by keeping machines clean, calibrated, and ready, making it easier to achieve faster and more predictable changeovers.
Quantifying Hidden Costs
Hidden inefficiencies in changeovers often go unnoticed until the numbers are tallied. Ten extra minutes per shift may seem minor, but across multiple lines and weeks, it translates into hundreds of lost production hours, wasted materials, and mounting operational costs.
How Manufacturers Can Leverage Preventive Maintenance for Changeovers
Align PM with Production Scheduling
Manufacturing operations can minimize downtime by scheduling PM along with planned changeover periods. Rather than treat maintenance and changeover as separate events, the two processes are brought together so that machines are serviced and readied during a time when they are already down. This alignment saves time and keeps production schedules from becoming quite as unpredictable.
Use Preventive Maintenance Software to Automate
For changeovers, a preventive maintenance software is a preferred tool for integrating preventive maintenance and changeovers. CMMS software enables users to set up tasks ahead of time, record work orders, and performance data to keep operations as efficient as possible. Core functionality, including preventive maintenance scheduling, automatic work orders, and equipment history, enables teams to troubleshoot more efficiently and ensure machinery is always ready for the next run.
Train Teams on Maintenance and Changeover Integration
Optimal changeover occurs when operators use feedback from breweries to make changes in real-time while maintenance staff coordinates up-front. “Cross-training helps one group understand what the other is working on,” he said, “and that can break down silos and improve coordination.” When all are on the same page, transitions happen faster and more reliably.
Apply Lean and Preventive Maintenance Strategies
The introduction of preventive maintenance and Lean Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) paves the way for continuous improvement. This seamless flow minimizes waste, eliminates variation, and delivers sustained progress, enabling faster and smoother changeovers.
The Human Side of Changeovers
Changeovers have implications that extend beyond the machines; they also impact the team's daily work rhythms. Poorly managed machinery is a source of stress, overtime, and irritation for operators and mechanics. Preventative maintenance lubricates that friction, so that people have smoother lives and routines, feel safer in their daily environments, and can concentrate on productive work.
Future Outlook: Digital Transformation of Maintenance and Changeovers
Role of IoT and Predictive Maintenance
The age of IoT has changed the way manufacturers look at changeovers. Machines today have sensors that collect real-time data on factors such as wear, vibration, and temperature. This information helps predict when parts may affect changeover efficiency, allowing teams to address issues before they disrupt production.
AI-Driven CMMS
AI is helping make CMMS systems smarter by determining the best times to schedule preventive maintenance. Instead of rigid service intervals, AI systems take production demand, machine use, and history to synchronize maintenance with planned changeovers. In this way, downtime is minimized and machines remain reliable.
A Vision of Seamless Changeovers
Eventually, changeovers could become almost imperceptible. Advanced sensors, artificial intelligence, and innovative maintenance tools will anticipate needs and seamlessly integrate tasks into the workflow. These transitions will evolve beyond mere delays, transforming into foreseeable opportunities to boost efficiency.
From Reactive to Prescriptive Maintenance
Manufacturers are advancing through a maintenance maturity curve, evolving from reactive to preventive, then to predictive, and finally to prescriptive maintenance. At the prescriptive stage, systems not only foresee issues but also suggest exact actions to optimize both maintenance and changeovers, leading to a fully integrated production approach.
Changeovers with Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is certainly more than just an insurance against unforeseen failure. It is the very fact that it makes production operations smoother and more efficient, in particular during model changeovers, that gives this tool its true worth.
By keeping machines clean, calibrated, and reliable, preventive maintenance reduces wasted time, cuts down on errors, and ensures transitions between product runs happen with greater consistency.
The key takeaway is that manufacturers who connect their preventive maintenance strategy with changeover planning unlock a decisive competitive advantage. Faster changeovers mean more production capacity, lower costs, and greater flexibility to meet customer demand.
Now is the time for manufacturers to act. Adopting a CMMS and integrating preventive maintenance into everyday operations can transform changeovers from a source of hidden inefficiency into a driver of productivity. Those who take this step will find themselves better positioned to compete in a fast-moving, competitive market.
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