Expediting Facility Changeover at The American Airlines Center Andrew Conway Jennifer Keen Tabitha G. Olachea Marcus Wentrcek Marcos Garza

A Little History on Seating April 27, 2001 – AAC announced the installation of the most sophisticated retractable seating system ever designed for a sports and entertainment venue. Rollway Grandstands “designed a retractable seating system and it's the only one of its kind in the country."

Floor Layout for Basketball

Floor Layout for Hockey

Differences Between Both Setups Basketball SetupHockey Setup

AAC Current Situation Currently the American Airlines Center is performing NHL, NBA, Arena football, and various concert changeovers. Changeovers have drastically decreased in time from 8 hours to currently 3 ½ - 4 hours (depending on the change over event). Our task was to decrease the changeover time to about 2 hours. By reducing the time, they hope to host more events; which in return will increase revenue by $100,000 per event.

Short Fat Stacks

Side Courts

Floor and Polar Ice Racks

Side Rails

End Court

Aisle View

Tall Glass On Carts In Storage

Polar Ice Sheets

End Zone Where Equipment Comes In and Out

Seats That Come Out to Add Players Benches

Problem Situations 1.Amount of time it currently takes to remove the hussies 2.High turn over rate of employees and rarely ever being fully staffed due to no shows 3.Allowing enough room so to avoid bottleneck occurrences 4.Unbolting the stacks and removing them 5.Skilled forklift drivers 6.Getting chair racks onto the court sooner

Entitlement Graph (Time vs. Cost) Current AAC Base Line Entitlement 2 hr4 hr

Using SMED at the Center Single Minute Exchange of Dies Internal set-up activates Elements in the changeover which can only happen when the Basketball floor is down External set-up activates Elements that are performed when the floor is open

SMED Benefits Reduce equipment costs Reduce changeover time Improve productivity Increase safety Improve flexibility Decrease employee turnover Increase worker utilization

How SMED Was Executed Preliminary Stage – Data was obtained by observation at the Center Stage 1 – Separate internal and external activates Stage 2 – Convert internal activities to external activities Stage 3 – Streamline all activities Stage 4 – Document internal and external procedures

SMED Advantages Flexibility – High employee turnover is no longer an obstacle Higher Productivity – Shorter changeovers increase the productivity rate and increase profit potential Increase Safety – Planned changeovers increase receptiveness and decrease confusion

Advantages of SMED Reduce Equipment Cost – Using existing equipment to its fullest (making internal operations, external) Increase Worker Utilization – When workers know what they need to do at all times there becomes less downtime

Gantt Chart

PAT Chart

PAT Chart - Forklifts

Possible Solutions Creating new type of side insert, that can be manually snapped into place, as opposed to being bolted in and out Smaller chair stackers (to fit in narrow passages) Possibly paying event crew salary, instead of a current flat rate, to avoid high turnover Purchasing new lightweight hussies

Enacted Solutions Team Leaders were added to each of the seven groups Reducing the straps used to move the fat stacks on the forklift to one center strap Snap-in inserts replaces time consuming hand cranked bolts Wheels added to the short stacks greatly reduced changeover time and the need for forklifts when removed

Other Proposed Solutions Perform Parallel tasks with other groups in order to reduce dependant tasks Make Internal Tasks, External Incentives for a job well done Reduce frequency of job shifting for workers

Any Questions? Andrew Conway Jennifer Keen Tabitha G. Olachea Marcus Wentrcek Marcos Garza