QUICK CHANGE TOOLING IS A CENTRAL COMPONENT IN SETUP REDUCTION PROGRAMS AND A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO REDUCING TOOL CHANGE TIME AND CUTTING MEASURING TIME FROM THE IN- PROCESS MACHINING FUNCTION. QUICK CHANGE TOOLING ALSO SUPPORTS JUST-IN-TIME (JIT) INVENTORY STRATEGIES, WHICH NORMALLY MEANS PRODUCING SMALLER LOT SIZES, MORE FREQUENTLY. CONSEQUENTLY, SETUP TIME IS INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY AND SETUP REDUCTION PROGRAMS MUST BE IMPLEMENTED TO REDUCE THE DOWN TIME RESULTING FROM JIT STRATEGIES. QUICK CHANGE TOOLING IS ONE OF THE PRODUCT/TECHNOLOGIES THAT BRIDGES THE GAP TO COMPUTER-INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS OF THE FUTURE.