Reducing Shift Changeover Time with Kaizen
A large container terminal faced downtime and productivity issues during shift changes due to truck driver changes and coordination challenges, along with safety risks. Terminal leadership initiated a week-long Kaizen event using the SMED lean methodology. The team identified improvement opportunities, designed and tested a new process, and documented the roll-out plan. The new process reduced shift changeover time by 53%, improved first-hour productivity by 7%, eliminated safety risks, required no additional investments, and boosted team engagement.
1/30/20251 min read
Situation: A large container terminal faced significant downtime and productivity issues during and immediately after shift changes, primarily due to delays in terminal truck driver changes and coordination challenges. Additionally, there were safety risks related to man-machine interactions during these shifts.
Approach: To address these challenges, terminal leadership initiated a well-prepared Kaizen event using the SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Die) lean methodology. The team consisted of cross-functional experts, truck drivers, and truck supervisors. On the first day, they received short training on the methodology and observed the actual situation at Gemba during the shift change to identify waste and understand the current state.
Several improvement opportunities were identified, and a future state process was designed and tested over the next few days. Various tests of different improvements were conducted, and the most effective ones were selected for the new process. By day five, the team demonstrated and documented the new process, along with a full roll-out plan for the following week.
Result: The new process design eliminated major risks related to man-machine interaction and reduced terminal truck shift changeover duration by 53%, creating more value-adding time to serve the customer by moving containers. Additionally, productivity in the first hour after the shift change improved by 7%. No additional investments were required, and team engagement improved significantly as the new process proved to be safer, more efficient, and effective.
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