No description available.

According to Folgiatto, da Silveira and Borenstein (2012), the current trend in the industry indicates a change from a mass production to a mass customization manufacturing. This mass customization means an increase on the need of flexibility, as the production line must be ready for frequent changes in order to adapt for producing different product variants. Human-Robot collaboration has demonstrated to be a great tool for increasing not only the flexibility but also the productivity, as either the human operator or the robot will be working on the task under issue. Within this collaborative environment, equipment for providing the robot with the information about where to move, pick and place a part is needed. Multiple types of sensors are used in the industry to fulfill this need. However, the adoption of this type of technical equipment might result very expensive. This thesis focuses on the assembly of a valve-hood on top of a truck diesel engine, for which a collaborative robot will be used in order to remove the task of lifting this part from the human operator. Later both parts will screw in conjunction the bolts of the valve hood, hence, a solution for finding the bolts is needed. Despite providing a brief study of the current options in the market, regarding high resolution cameras for robots, this thesis aims to provide a low-cost alternative by not making use of any of them. A blind solution is proposed. This solution consists in the implementation of coordinate geometry equations in the robot software in order to create a program that allows the robot to find the bolts without regard to the orientation with which the valve-hood is placed in front of the robot. This code is used later for creating a sequence in which the robot is assigned to find the entirety of the bolts. In order to evaluate the performance of the adopted solution an accuracy experiment is conducted. This experiment is divided in three parts in which three different positions of the valve-hood are tried. Within each position ten repetitions are made at the 50% and 100% percent of the speed. The main metric used for measuring the accuracy is the deviation (in mm), which is measured between the target bolt position and the actual contact position found by the robot. The overall results of this experiment show a good accuracy, with a precise enough alignment to the center of the bolt position so to allow a correct screwing operation. As a conclusion, the adopted blind solution shows to be feasible for being implemented in this scenario. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p>

Manufacturing companies have adapted to globalisation and collected their globally dispersed factories into factory networks, known as international manufacturing networks (IMNs). This requires coordination to access the associated competitive advantages, synchronise the factories, and exploit the capabilities inherent in those individual factories. However, when IMNs introduce digital transformation into the factories, the coordination is often hindered by uncertainty and complexity, as digital transformation requires an extensive adjustment that affects everything from the organisational structure to ways of working. Different parts of the network that are dependent on one another, for example, may be difficult to track and foresee the consequences of digital transformation. Hence, due to the respective challenges, complexities, and uncertainties, the coordination of digital transformation in IMN is paramount to examine.  This licentiate thesis begins with exploring coordination mechanisms to increase the understanding of existing research and shape it into a comprehensive overview. Moreover, through case studies, this thesis explores the challenges in and enablers for coordinating digital transformation in IMNs. Altogether, the challenges and enablers are analysed within the dimensions and categories of coordination mechanisms, i.e., they are collected into an overview and described within the case study context. The most significant findings of this thesis are related to the organisational structure, which enables the coordination of digital transformation. However, plenty of challenges remain, foremost connected to the formalisation of the organisational structure, e.g., balancing the rules and guidelines for digital transformation but providing space for people performing the activities to explore and investigate digital technologies.  This thesis further contributes to the existing body of research by untangling the complexity of coordination itself and, specifically, the coordination of digital transformation in IMNs, explicitly adding to the operations management field and the management of global operations. Practical contributions are also made, i.e., this thesis promotes practitioners’ increased understanding by providing specific examples and descriptions of the findings within their context. Based on the findings, this thesis offers multiple paths for future research, keeping in mind that coordination is not static but evolving, depending on the context in which it is performed.

Det här examensarbetet är utfört på ett legotillverkande företag och de arbetar bland annat med avverkande bearbetning, vilket detta arbete har fokuserat på. Produktionen som bedrivs på företaget brukar kallas för HVLV produktion. Det innebär att företaget oftast har nyproduktion på sina detaljer och att de återkommande arbeten som finns är väldigt få, vilket resulterar i långa ledtider. Syftet med detta examensarbete var att identifiera vilka aktiviteter som operatörerna lägger mest tid på och därefter välja fokusområde. Vidare kunna kartlägga valt fokusområde ”ställ” med tidsstudier och spagettidiagram för att definiera mer specifika mål. Reducera antalet verktygsrelaterade aktiviteter som sker under ett ställ med 50%, reducera förflyttningar mellan maskin och ställplats med 75% och letandet av verktyg under ett ställ med 50% var de mål som låg till grund för arbetet. För att uppnå dessa mål har några förbättringsförslag tagits fram. 14 stycken verktyg som alltid ska sitta i maskinerna, så kallade standardverktyg har valts ut och implementerats. Tillhörande verktygslistor med relevant information om verktygen och dess utformning har även skapats för att underlätta för operatörerna. Verktygen är utvalda med flexibilitet i fokus för att passa Kramers HVLV produktion, detta via inköpspris, mest köpta verktyg från största verktygsleverantören, bearbetningstid och operatörernas egna erfarenheter. Utifrån standardverktygen har en rutin skapats som operatörerna skall följa från att de programmerat en detalj tills det är dags att starta maskinen. En genomgång av tidigare arbeten gjordes för att se i vilken utsträckning valda standardverktyg hade gått att använda. Vilket visade att 40% av de tidigare genomgångna arbetena hade gått att tillverka enbart med utvalda standardverktyg. Vidare gjorde en teoretisk jämförelse med tidigare kartläggning som visar att via standardverktygen och rutinen kunde antalet verktygsrelaterade aktiviteter reduceras med cirka 40%. Detta till största del för att oklarheterna angående vilka verktyg som sitter i maskinerna och i vilken hållare eliminerats. Därmed elimineras också letande av verktyg där målet var satt till en reducering på 50%. Sett till kartläggningen av ställen gör operatören fler förflyttningar till maskinen än vad det är verktyg som skall ställas. Om operatörerna följer rutinen och använder sig av verktygsvagnen krävs endast en förflyttning till maskinen efter att alla verktyg är ställda. Detta medför en kraftig reducering av förflyttningar till och från maskinen. Resultatet visar att cirka 90% av förflyttningarna under ett av de kartlagda ställen hade gått att reducera. / This final year project has been carried out at a legomanufacturing company and they work, among other things, with cutting-edge processing which this work has focused on. The production type at the company is usually called HVLV production. This means that the products they produce are often made for the first time and that the recurring work are few. Which results in long lead-times. The purpose of this final year project was to identify which activities that the operators spent the most time on and then select a focus area. Furthermore, map the selected focus area "setup", with time studies and spaghetti charts to define more specific goals. Reduce the number of tool-related activities that occur in a setup by 50%, reduce movements between machine and setup-location by 75% and reduce the search of tools during a setup by 50%. This were the goals that lay as a foundation for the final year project. To achieve these goals, some suggested improvements were made. A number of tools that always will be used in the machines, so-called standardtools were selected and implemented. Related tool lists with relevant information about the tools and their design have also been created in order to facilitate the operators work. The tools were selected with flexibility in focus to fit the HVLV production. This were made through comparing purchase price, the most purchased tools from their largest tool supplier, processing times and the operators own experience. Based on the standard tools a routine was made which the operators should follow, from programming until the operator is ready to start the machine. A review of previous work was made to see in what extent the selected standardtools could be used. This showed that 40% of the previously reviewed work could have been manufactured using only the selected standardtools. Furthermore, a theoretical comparison with previous mapping showed that with the standardtools and routine, the number of tool-related activities could be reduced by approximately 40%. This mostly due to the elimination of uncertainties regarding which tools and toolholders that were located in the machines. This also eliminated the search of tools where the target was 50% reduction. According to the mapping of the setups the operator made more transportations to the machine than the number of tools that were to be set. If the operators follow the routine and use the tool carrier, only one transportation to the machine is required after all the tools are set. This results in a great reduction of movements to and from the machine. The result shows that about 90% of the movements in one of the mapped setups had been reduced.

No description available.

Today’s industries face an increasing global competition. Decision makers have to deal with different kinds of uncertainty, a complex business ecosystem, a high pace of change, and an unforgiving market when less than best decisions are made. One, among many others, approach that can lead to these better decisions is to have a strategy. The objective of this research is: “To design a model that supports the formulation of product strategy and manufacturing strategy in accordance to each other and thereby facilitate and encourage continuous communication and collaboration between product development and manufacturing system development.” To help meet the objective, three chapters of frame of reference are presented; Strategy, development processes and design for X. The frame of reference together with discussions in industry (ITT Flygt) has in an iterative manner lead to a suggested model that supports the formulation of product strategy and manufacturing strategy. Future research will improve, evaluate and validate both the usability of the model and the results from using it in practise. A method for using the model will be developed. The research project presented in this licentiate thesis is one of seven parallel research projects with a shared objective – to develop systematic working procedures, a generic decision model and decision sub models that support the practical design of a workshop that supports the business strategy of the company. / QC 20101125

Any way of making the manufacturing industry more efficient is always of great interest due to the contribution of manufacturing to the society. A major asset within manufacturing is information about manufacturing systems, as a base when making decisions. The most essential information within manufac-turing industry would be the manufacturing systems capability information. That information would include information about the resource, used process and produced product. Although important, manufacturing systems capability models are rare, and the information seems to be challenging to model. The purpose of this thesis is to model manufacturing systems capability with focus on the machining industry. In order to model manufacturing system capability, existing information standards has been used as a frame of reference. Some information standards have been evaluated on industrial cases and sometimes modified to serve a specific purpose. The information standards have been evaluated to first separately represent product, process and resource. Thereafter have the infor-mation standards been evaluated to represent all three domains together. ISO10303-214 (AP214) has been modified and evaluated to represent any process within manufacturing. The state of the product and the state of used manufacturing system are described and connected to every relevant process step. AP214 with ISO10303-224 (AP224) has been used together with a developed method, to describe manufacturing system capability within machining. Within the limitations of AP224 geometrical feature description, the capability of a manufacturing system can be defined and connected to a product description. Using similar feature based description for the capability and the product description, products manufacturability can be evaluated. Also ISO14649 and ISO10303-238, both also known as STEP-NC, are treated in this thesis as enablers to describe manufacturing system capability. STEP-NC is shown to describe manufacturing systems within machining where the product, process and resource are collectively described. In order to describe capability and evaluate products manufacturability, STEP-NC has to be extended from describing/modelling one configuration of a manufacturing system to describe a set of configurations. / QC 20101130

The purpose of this master thesis is to contribute to the reduction of knowledge loss and reinvention inside and between organizations pursuing product development projects in developing countries to ensure growth and improved living standards. Investigation and to determination of existing knowledge sharing and knowledge storing practices in several stakeholders of a product development project in Quelimane, Mozambique will be studied. The involved stakeholders are non-profit and governmental organizations and a group of university students. The product development project involved the design and implementation of an anaerobic digester during the spring of 2018. Collaborations between some of the stakeholders started in 2015 and will exceed the project duration. Mixed research methods were used, and open-ended question interviews were conducted for the qualitative data collection. The data was analyzed by coding to find common patterns and relationships. A literature review and desk research were made to obtain detailed information about knowledge management and other related subjects. Results showed that all organizations involved in the product development process experienced at least one barrier to knowledge transfer related to their position as a nonprofit organization pursuing product development in a developing country. The definition of a knowledge management strategy is as important for non-profit organizations as it is for for-profit organizations, but the current methods for choosing a strategy need to be modified in order to fit the overall strategy of such organizations. The implementation of a knowledge management strategy and suitable knowledge management methods and activities could contribute to the reduction of knowledge loss and reinvention inside and between organizations pursuing product development projects in developing countries to ensure growth and improved living standards. / Syftet med detta examensarbete är att bidra till en minska kunskapsförlust och återskapandet av tekniska lösningar inom och mellan organisationer som bedriver produktutvecklingsprojekt i utvecklingsländer för att säkerställa tillväxt och förbättrad levnadsstandard. En undersökning av befintlig kunskapsdelning och kunskapshantering hos flera aktörer i ett produktutvecklingsprojekt i Quelimane, Moçambique utfördes. De involverade aktörerna är ideella och statliga organisationer och en grupp universitetsstudenter. Produktutvecklingsprojektet involverade design och implementering av en anaerob rötkammare under våren 2018. Samarbetet mellan några av aktörerna startades 2015 och kommer att fortsätta efter projektets slutförande. Blandade forskningsmetoder användes och intervjuer med öppna frågor genomfördes för den kvalitativa datainsamlingen. Data analyserades genom kodning för att hitta gemensamma faktorer och relationer. En litteraturundersökning och skrivbordsarbete genomfördes för att få detaljerad information om kunskapshantering och andra relaterade ämnen. Resultaten visade att alla organisationer som deltog i produktutvecklingsprocessen upplevde minst ett hinder för kunskapsöverföring i samband med deras ställning som en ideell organisation som bedriver produktutveckling i ett utvecklingsland. Definitionen av en strategi för kunskapshantering är lika viktig för ideella organisationer som för vinstdrivande organisationer, men nuvarande metoder för att välja en strategi behöver ändras för att passa den övergripande strategin för sådana organisationer. En definiering av en kunskapshanteringsstrategi och lämpliga kunskapsförvaltningsmetoder och aktiviteter kan bidra till minska kunskapsförlust och återskapandet av tekniska lösningar inom och mellan organisationer som bedriver produktutvecklingsprojekt i utvecklingsländer för att säkerställa tillväxt och förbättrad levnadsstandard.

A product development project has been carried out in collaboration with Ifairs company. This project attempts to test and study the usability of Ifairs product, that still in the development phase, a new virtual platform for online events. Ifairs platform was designed to ensure a better user experience, and more engagement between host and attendees; in fact, Ifairs motto is ‘let´s engage people.’ Data have been collected from questionnaire interviews and field observation to determine the users' needs. The results have been analyzed to translate users' needs to product requirements and design specifications. Since the company has already given a final product prototype, this prototype has been evaluated to establish which requirements were fulfilled in order to start re-designing concepts. A number of concepts have been created and tested based on the design specification. This project has focused on user experience, usability, designing, and administering questionnaires. The results of analyzing users' work and needs showed that the interest in the online meeting platform has increased during the last years also that interaction between host and attendees is very weak. The attendees are not engaged and lose concentration quickly. The collected users' needs were to have a platform that is easy to use and protects security and privacy, where attendees can have an enjoyable experience with good interaction and engagement. In the testing of Ifairs platform, more users' needs were collected, and three concepts were made according to the list of requirements and from the data collected in previous steps.The design process followed in this project is a wheel lifecycle, so the design process needs to go forward or iterate until all the goals and users' needs are achieved.

Detta examensarbete har gjorts under vårterminen 2023 i företaget Scania i Södertälje, Stockholm. Examensarbetet handlar om effektivisering av reservdelsutvärdering inom fordonsindustrin genom att använda Leans grundprinciper, Scania produktionssystemet samt reservdelsklassificering. Arbetet är ett förbättringsprojekt där reservdelarna som produceras på emobility produktionslinje är arbetets fokus. Arbetet inleddes med att samla in data genom intervju, observationer och företagets produktionssystem. Därefter studerades nuvarande tillståndet av produktionen, där produktionsvolymer följdes upp och kopplades till lämpliga klassificeringsmetoder, sedan skapades värdeflödeskartläggning för nuvarande tillstånd. Resultatet som togs fram från nulägesbeskrivning, produktionsprocess och produktionsanalys visade att företaget jobbar utifrån dess principer och prioriteringar, reservdelsklassificering, samt tillämpar leanprinciperna. Examensarbetet innebär att genomföra ett förbättringsarbete som inte bara handlar om att analysera och undersöka problemen, utan det fokuserar på att identifiera relevanta metoder och lösningar som kan implementeras. Slutligen dras en slutsats och förslag om den lösningen och metoden kan bidra till förbättring. Slutsatserna föreslår att företaget fokuserar på de mest efterfrågade reservdelarna och tillverka dem på den dedikerade produktionslinjen för de kommande två åren, vilket är beprövat arbetssätt som visar sig lämpligt och effektivt eftersom det används och fungerar bra i andra produktionslinje inom samma företag. / This thesis has been done during the spring term 2023 in the company Scania in Södertälje, Stockholm. The degree project is about streamlining spare parts management in the automotive industry by using Lean principles, Scania production system and spare parts classification. The work is an improvement project where the spare parts produced on the e-mobility production line and this is the focus of the work. The work began by collecting data through interviews, observations, and the company's production system. Next, the current state of production was studied, where production volumes were followed up and linked to appropriate classification methods, then value flow mapping was created for the current state. The results obtained from the current situation description, production process and production analysis showed that the company works based on its principles and priorities, spare parts classification, and largely applies the lean principles. The degree project involves carrying out an improvement project that is not only about analyzing and investigating the problems, but it focuses on identifying relevant methods and solutions that can be implemented. Finally, a conclusion is done, and suggestions are made as to whether the solution and method can contribute to improvement. The conclusions suggest that the company focuses on the most demanded spare parts and manufacture them on the dedicated production line for the next two years, which is a proven way of working that proves to be suitable and effective as it is used and works well in other production lines within the same company.