Purpose – The purpose of the study is to explore how productivity can be improved in an assembly line in manufacturing industry. In order to fulfill the purpose, following three research questions have been formulated: 1. How can an assembly line be designed? 2. Which potential improvement areas can be found in an assembly line? 3. How can assembly line balancing be used to improve productivity? Method – A case study was performed in order to answer the research questions. A combination of quantitative and qualitative data have been collected. To build an understanding of existing theories and research within the study area, a literature study was conducted which formed a theoretical framework. Parallel to the literature study, empirical data was collected through a case study. Data collection methods included observations, document studies, time measurements and focus group meetings. The reviewed theories and the collected data were later analyzed and a result was generated. Findings – In order to improve productivity, Theory of Constraints enabled the identification of potential improvement areas. To address the improvement areas, Assembly Line Balancing was found an appropriate method. Through the case study it was found that through Assembly Line Balancing, a reduction of takt time can be achieved which opens up the possibility to increase the production volume. Also, when re-allocating operators between work tasks, a reduction in numbers of operators is possible which results in lower costs. By lowering costs and increasing production volume, improved productivity is achieved. Implications – This study presents an application of the two improvement methods Theory of Constraints and Assembly Line Balancing in a manufacturing industry. Therefore, the thesis can be used as a basis when performing improvement work related to reduction of takt time in other manufacturing industries, to gain a better understanding for the implementation of the studied methods. Limitations – One limitation of the study was the pandemic Covid-19, which enforced restrictions on the case company. This disturbed the conduction of the case study since less focus group meetings were conducted, and suggested improvements could not be tested. Another limitation was the limited study time frame. Consequently, the collected time measurements were relatively few and the study scope was delimited to only packaging activities. To increase reliability, a more extensive time frame is necessary. The analysis has been adopted to the situation at the case company. The conclusions may hence be biased, which could restrict to what extent the study can be generalized.

With the rise of smart manufacturing technologies and a shift towards a new industrial revolution, brings forth many new challenges, one of which is how to adapt and integrate these technologies into existing assembly lines. Scania CV AB has joined this race and, with the help of smart manufacturing solutions, works on increasing efficiency amongst its assembly lines. This thesis is aimed at creating concept designs using different smart manufacturing technologies in the assembly line of a pedal car, to evaluate and adapt the concept suited for a real assembly line. The thesis starts with studying the different smart manufacturing technologies to better understand them and the scientific methods used. This follows up with the methodology where several scientific methods such as morphological matrix and weight based decision making matrix are used to generate and evaluate different concept designs. This is followed by a qualitative analysis that helps in selecting the concept design that best suits the needs of the assembly line under consideration. The different concepts are visualized and the evaluation based on different parameters are discussed. This thesis lays a foundation to realize that an aggregate of an optimized process plan, a continuous improvement strategy and the right use of smart manufacturing technologies contributes to the productivity of the assembly line in the long run. / Med en ökning av smarta tillverkningsteknologier och ett skift mot en ny industriell revolution, kommer nya utmaningar. Av dessa utmaningar ifrågasätts hur man anpassar och kombinerar dessa olika teknologier gentemot existerande monteringslinjer. Scania CV AB har tagit del i denna resa och, med hjälp av smarta tillverkningslösningar, jobbar ständigt mot att effektivisera sina monteringslinjer. Detta examensarbete fokuserar på att använda olika och smarta tillverkningsteknologier i en monteringslina för tillverkning av en trampbil. Detta görs genom att evaluera och anpassa olika koncept som är lämpade för en verklig monteringslina. Examensarbetet börjar med en undersökning av nuläget för att få en bättre uppfattning om smarta tillverkningsteknologier samt de vetenskapliga metoder som används. Även här så undersöks referensprodukten - trampbil samt de olika programvarorna AviX, ExtendSim och LayCAD. Genom att ha satt tydliga arbetsmetoder och följt upp mot dessa så diskuterar och hänvisar nästa kapitel resultaten. Resultaten visar hur olika koncept har tagits fram samt vilka teknologier som går ihop med dessa. Fördelar, nackdelar och risker hos respektive teknologi har benämnts. Ett systematiskt arbetssätt har tagits fram mot hur man anpassar konceptet för monteringslinan av en trampbil till en verklig monteringslina, samt hur man har jobbat runt de restriktioner som uppkommit. Examensarbetet slutar med ett kapitel där slutsatserna, på en överskådlig nivå, tas fram. Hur dessa teknologier har kombinerats och evaluerats, samt att koncepterna som har tagits fram har lagt en grund för framtida projekt att följa upp emot.