| 1. |
- Halling, Bengt, 1959-
(författare)
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Human Lean : Combining Sense of Coherence and Lean to achieve productivity and health
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to identify barriers to and supportive factors for Lean implementation and to investigate how application of the Sense of Coherence (SOC) theory combined with Lean philosophy may affect health and productivity. The thesis is based on five studies. The first study compared similarities and divergences in barriers to Lean described in interviews by informants in manufacturing and health care. The second study was a case study at a manufacturing firm. Interviews with managers implementing Lean revealed how their views on Lean influenced the implementation. In the third study, a literature analysis was used to conceptualize the concepts and roles of leadership and management in regard to Lean. In the fourth study it was explored how productivity, quality, work attendance and numbers of rehabilitation cases were influenced after implementation of sense of coherence theory based managerial behavior at three workplaces. The fifth study examined how the implementation of a new leadership approach based on the SOC theory combined with Lean philosophy relate to productivity, quality and levels of sick leave at a steel-producing company. The results from the studies show that the perceived difficulties and barriers are much the same in manufacturing and health care. Another finding was that managers' views on Lean influence the implementation but also that learning during the implementation process can alter their views. A third finding is that lean management is a matter of dualism, consisting of two complementary systems of action, management and leadership, which are related to the two basic principles of Lean, continuous improvement and respect for people. After application of the SOC theory combined with Lean as a basis for the managerial approach, there were improvements in productivity, quality, attendance at work and reduced levels of sick leave at all four studied workplaces, as well as fewer cases of rehabilitation at three workplaces. Several conclusions can be drawn. One is that Lean consultants with a limited approach to Lean, lack of a common organization-wide definition of Lean, and lack of supportive leadership are barriers to Lean implementation. Lean consultants with deep knowledge and capability to teach others Lean is a supportive factor. An organization-wide definition of Lean through an organization-specific Lean philosophy is another supportive factor. Managers that use both leadership and management to support people is a supportive factor to Lean. The study also shows that an application of SOC theory combined with Lean may be positively associated with health and productivity improvements. The overall conclusion is that people’s way of thinking and acting is the nucleus in Lean. To emphasize the importance of people, I suggest to call the approach of combining SOC and Lean “Human Lean.”
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| 2. |
- Ayas, Ebru, 1977-
(författare)
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Engineering Quality Feelings : Applications in products, service environments and work systems
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Contemporary quality issues in product design are moving from materialistic to emotional user fulfillment; comprehensive research is needed to examine quality product feelings. This research is directed toward a deeper understanding of user and customer quality feelings for different product types, including services. The quality feelings concept includes dimensions of product quality, especially functionality, ergonomics and aesthetics. The first objective of this thesis is to identify, prioritize and synthesize quality feelings into product attributes in product development applications. The second objective is to explore, test and propose methodological approaches for designing quality feelings into products. Several methods from psychology, ergonomics, statistics and probabilistic methods and heuristics were applied to achieve the objectives. From a methodological viewpoint, Likert scales, free elicitation technique and Just About Right scales were applied for data collection. Multiple Regression, Factor Analysis, Correspondence Analysis, Genetic algorithms, Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Rough Sets (RS) were applied for data analyses. For ergonomic product evaluations, direct observations, 3D workload simulations, time and frequency analyses were conducted. Five product applications are included in this thesis: operator driver cabin design of reach trucks, steering wheel design trigger switch design in right-angled nutrunners, bed-making systemsproducts and waiting room environments. Heuristic methods were found effective when there is a high number of product attributes that interact to provide quality feelings. RS results are consistent with PLS attribute predictions. When the number of product attributes is large in comparison to the number of observations, PLS extracts informative results for quality feelings. The RS method is effective in identifying interactions among design attributes. Quality feelings are associated with both tangible (tactile characteristics) and intangible (quick and easy to use) product characteristics. Words such as safety, functionality, ergonomics, comfort, reliability, supportiveness, usability, feedback, pleasantness, attractiveness, durability and distinctiveness describe quality feelings from tangible products and services. Based on product type, the quality dimensions represented by these words possess different interactions and dependencies. In work environments, products act as prostheses between workers for social interaction, which need to be considered as important quality feelings dimensions.
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| 3. |
- Yang, Liyun, 1992-
(författare)
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Ergonomic Risk Assessment and Intervention through Smart Workwear Systems
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The rapid development of wearable technology has provided opportunities to ergonomics research and practice with new ways for workload measurements, data analytics, risk assessment and intervention. This thesis aims at developing and evaluating methods using wearable technologies to assess physical risk factors at work, and further to give feedback to employees to improve their work techniques.One smartphone application (ErgoArmMeter) was developed for the assessment of upper arm postures and movements at work. The application uses integrated signals of the embedded accelerometer and gyroscope, and processes and presents the assessment results directly after a measurement. Laboratory validation with 10 participants was performed using an optical tracking system as standard measurement. The results showed that the application had similar accuracy compared to standard inclinometry for static postures and improved accuracy in dynamic conditions. With its convenience and low cost, the application may be used by researchers and practitioners in various scenarios for risk assessment.Three models for assessment of work metabolism (WM) using heart rate (HR) and accelerometers (ACCs) were evaluated during simulated work tasks with 12 participants against indirect calorimetry as standard measurement. The HR + arm-leg ACC model showed best accuracy in most work tasks. The HR-Flex model showed a small bias for the average of all tasks. For estimating WM in the field using wearable technologies, the HR-Flex model or the HR + arm-leg ACC model may be chosen depending on the need for accuracy level and resource availabilities. Further improvement of the classification algorithm in the HR + arm-leg ACC model is needed in order to suit various types of work.Two smart workwear systems were developed and evaluated. Smart workwear system 1.0 consisted of a sensorized vest, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and an Android tablet application. It assessed risks of high physiological workload and prolonged occupational sitting/standing. The results were visualized by color-coded risk levels. The system was evaluated with 8 participants from four occupations in a field study. It was perceived as useful, comfortable and not disturbing by most participants. Further development is required for the system for automated risk assessment of various ergonomic risk factors in real work situations.Smart workwear system 2.0 consisted of an instrumented t-shirt with IMUs, vibration units and an Android smartphone application. It provided vibrotactile feedback to users’ upper arm and trunk when predefined angular thresholds were exceeded. The system was evaluated for work postures intervention in industrial order picking among 15 participants. It showed to be effective in improving the trunk and dominant upper arm postures. The system was perceived as comfortable and useful. The vibrotactile feedback was evaluated as supportive for learning regarding workplace and task design among the participants.In conclusion, the research in this thesis showed that wearable technologies can be used both in the laboratory and field for assessment of physical risk factors at work and intervention in work technique improvement. With further research and development, smart workwear systems may contribute to automated risk assessment, prevention of work-related ill health, and improvement of the design and overall quality of work.
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| 4. |
- Bengt, Halling, 1959-
(författare)
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Lean Implementation : the significance of people and dualism
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Lean, with its origins at the Toyota Motor Company, is a concept that is known to increase effectiveness in manufacturing. The Lean concept is now argued to be relevant not only in manufacturing but in service and health-care delivery as well. The reported results of Lean implementation efforts are divided. There are reports that most of the Lean implementation efforts are not reaching the goal; on the other hand, there are reports of promising results. The divided results from Lean implementation efforts show how important it is to research and identify factors that are barriers to successful implementation of Lean. This thesis aims to contribute knowledge about barriers to Lean implementation by collecting empirical findings from manufacturing and health care and structuring the perceived barriers and difficulties to Lean implementation. My first study aimed to compare similarities and divergences in barriers to Lean described by key informants in manufacturing and health care. The data was collected via semi-structured interviews. Findings showed that the perceived difficulties and barriers are much the same in manufacturing and health care. The second study was a case study at a manufacturing firm, researching how the views on Lean of the managers implementing Lean influence its implementation. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with 20 individuals and covered all hierarchical management levels in the company. Findings showed that managers' views on Lean influence the implementation but also that learning during the implementation process can alter managers' views of Lean. The third study aimed to research how management of Lean is described in the literature. This was done through a literature review. The findings showed that Lean management is a matter of dualism, consisting of two complementary systems of action, management and leadership, which are related to the two basic principles of Lean, continuous improvement and respect for the people.
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| 5. |
- Berglund, Martina, 1963-
(författare)
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Using Tentacles in Planning and Scheduling Work : Activities, Roles and Contributions
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Handling production scheduling is increasingly difficult for manyenterprises, and human involvement is necessary. The overall objective ofthis research was to gain further understanding of planners’ and schedulers’work within the manufacturing industry, to elucidate how their worksituation is formed, and to explain their significance to other employees’work and company activities. Scheduling work was studied in fourcompanies in the Swedish woodworking industry; a sawmill, a parquet floormanufacturer, a furniture manufacturer and a house manufacturer. Themethod used was activity analysis which is based on the analysis of workactivities in real work situations. Data collection included 20 days’observations and 65 interviews. Cross-case analysis with British cases onplanning work was also included.The findings revealed that the schedulers’ tasks lead to many activities. Twothirds of these are what can be expected. The remaining third constitutesactivities that depend on the schedulers’ individual attributes and the contextin which they work. The schedulers serve as problem solvers in a number ofdomains and constitute efficient information nodes, making them animportant service function. Furthermore, they have an alignment rolebetween different organizational groups. This role is specifically remarkablein dealing with production enquiries that must be aligned with productioncapability. Here, both planners and schedulers play an essential role inlinking the manufacturing and the commercial sides and their differentfunctional logics.Planners and schedulers in daily work exert strong influence on others. Theydo not hold legitimate power. Instead their influence emanates mainly fromaccess to and control of information and their ability to apply expertise tointerpret this information and examine the impact of decisions made acrossdifferent areas of the business. Personal power related to social skills is alsosignificant.Furthermore, they facilitate others’ work in continuous personalinteractions, serving the technical scheduling software system, and aligningdifferent organizational functions. In combination with expert knowledgeand developed social skills, they significantly contribute to quality operationsperformance. Finally, the schedulers influence the decision latitude of otheremployees and may indirectly promote job satisfaction, thus contributing todeveloping appropriate working conditions for others in the company.
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| 6. |
- Eklund, Niklas, Professor, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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Russian ideas of peace and peacekeeping
- 2023
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Ingår i: Relational peace practices. - Manchester : Manchester University Press. - 9781526168962 - 9781526168955 ; , s. 27-50
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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| 7. |
- Eliasson, Kristina, 1979-
(författare)
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Occupational health services in the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders : Processes, tools and organizational aspects
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are associated with high costs and it is essential to prevent them. Occupational Health Services(OHS) provide expert services regarding work environment, health and rehabilitation of work related disorders. Risk assessments of the work environment can be an initial step for preventive measures, and ergonomists can be assigned by clients to assess exposures in the work environment. For such assignments different tools can be used. The aim of this thesis was to explore prerequisites, processes and practices of OHS consultants in Sweden within the domain of primary prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. This was explored through the work of ergonomists in their role of assessing ergonomics risks. The research methodology was both quantitative and qualitative. Data collection includes a web questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and inter- and intra-observer reliability tests. The results shows that ergonomics risk assessments were most commonly initiated reactively and a systematic work methodology for the risk assessment process was often lacking. Swedish ergonomists used only a few standardized tools for risk assessment. The Ergonomics provision from the Swedish Work Environment Authority, AFS-98, was widely used, but other observation-based tools were used far less often. Ergonomics risks were often assessed solely by means of observation, based on ergonomists’ knowledge and experience. The results also pointed to that that the reliability was not acceptable when risk assessment was performed without any standardized tool. Furthermore, the results point to that support from the OHS organizations is an important prerequisite for ergonomists to work with primary prevention. Further, opportunities for specialization within a specific industry sector seem to facilitate ergonomic interventions. It is also important to have close relationships with clients and to make them aware about ergonomists competence. Conclusively, this thesis identifies a numbers of areas in which OHS must develop to improve primary preventive services regarding work environment.
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| 8. |
- Nord Nilsson, Lena
(författare)
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Occupational Health Services Professionals; skills, needs and experiences shared in a learning network : Co-operative inquiry performed in the manufacturing sector
- 2018
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Work environment conditions can influence individuals, organisations as well as society, and economic consequences can be extensive. The employer is responsible for the work environment,but must engage Occupational Health Services (OHS) or similar if the own competenceis not sufficient. Consequently, the professional skills of OHS providers is an important topic, as the services delivered are aimed at contributing to a good work environment. However, research in this area was scant and there was a call for illumination of what professional skills are needed within OHS. There was also a need to find arenas for knowledge development and sharing within and between occupational safety and health (OS&H) professionals and researchers.One aim of this thesis was to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding about professional skills when it comes to OS&H engineers and ergonomists working within the manufacturing sector. A second aim was to gain experiences of using co-operative inquiry in a learning network for OS&H professionals in order to develop professional skills. The thesis is based on three papers, all with a qualitative research approach. The co-operative inquiry method was used to run a learning network for the research. This network consisted of ten OS&H professionals (engineers and ergonomists) employed at in-house as well as external providers of OHS for manufacturing companies, and two researchers. Everyone in the network acted as co-researchers in accordance with the intention of co-operative inquiry. The dialogues at the meetings were analysed with thematic analysis, using six socio-technical elements as themes.The results showed that the OS&H engineers and ergonomists in the network wanted to work more preventively in the future. To achieve this, they expressed needs for both theoretically based arguments and communication skills to convince clients about the benefits with this approach. Research based knowledge, practical experience and good examples were shared and reflected on with the purpose of integrating the new knowledge into daily practice. The dialogues at the meetings dealt mainly with topics at an organisation level rather than details and individual level. The dialogues focused on e.g. co-operation in teams within the OHS firms and with different stakeholders at the client companies, integration of OS&H management into existing processes, participation from early stages in design and change processes, the use of risk assessment tools and, finally, communication skills.The co-operative inquiry method was suitable, as the network functioned as an arena for reflective learning.
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| 9. |
- Renström, Jonas, 1966-
(författare)
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Senior Management Lean Practice : A Team-Based Approach to Facilitate Learning
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In order to improve organizational performance, organizations within both production and servicesectors keep turning to the Lean concept with hopes of finding a productive approach to theirchallenges. This tendency appears to remain in spite of reports indicating that the Lean concept isfar from easy to develop, implement and sustain. Research estimates that as much as 90 percent ofcompanies do not reach the goals they aspire to when trying to implement Lean. Leadership andmanagement are pointed out as key enablers for Lean development. It appears, however, that theseareas prove most difficult and also contain gaps in literature and research. Lean and organizationallearning have been presented as highly correlated. Since social practice and organizational crossfunctional cooperation are central activities within organizational learning, cross-functionalmanagement teams are of interest. Based on this background, the purpose of this thesis is to furtherthe understanding of requirements on senior management in Lean development. The purpose isattained by analyzing a team-based management approach to Lean practice and competencedevelopment, and investigating how that approach relates to organizational performance. Thethesis approaches the Lean concept by means of an organizational learning perspective. Its casestudy approach was conducted at a large, international manufacturing company. In the thesis, asequenced and team-based management approach developed by the studied company is describedand discussed. As a final step, this approach is evaluated according to what improvements couldbe found regarding key performance indicators such as delivery precision and safety within thestudied organization. The results from the included studies show that managerial Lean competencedevelopment is centered around a number of main factors. These include the initial definition ofLean within the organization, the process of leading with action in a new way of working, and thecollective experimenting and cross-functional cooperation within management teams.Furthermore, the target breakdown and follow-up process is found to be a viable, central approachto people involvement and competence development within the organization. The importance ofmanagement taking active part in the organizational learning process, acting as enablers and rolemodels by exercising a specific leadership style rather than just being considered as administrationfor the development process, is pointed out as central. Results indicate that areas within thecompany where cross-functional management teams have systematically practiced the sequenced,team-based approach over time perform better in areas such as health and safety and deliveryprecision. The main conclusions are that collective cross-functional practice within managementfunctions is a key factor for Lean management development, and that an understanding oforganizational learning in change efforts such as Lean development may be considered beneficialfor organizations. Specifically, the thesis concludes that the balancing of leadership andmanagement, or mechanistic and organic features within an organization, related to organizationallearning is of importance.
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| 10. |
- Renström, Jonas
(författare)
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Senior Managers and Lean- The importance of becoming a practitioner
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Considered to be one of the most influential paradigms in manufacturing, Lean has developed and expanded beyond the shop floor and manufacturing environment of the auto industry. Lean is considered to be applicable throughout organizations and other industries besides manufacturing. Interest in both research and implementation of the Lean concept, heavily influenced by Toyota Motor Company, is said to continue to increase despite the fact that the concept is said to be both ambiguous and difficult to implement. Two main traditions of Lean are said to exist: “toolboxLean” and “Lean thinking.” The particular translation of the concept that is accepted will influence management’s approach in implementing a Lean way of working. The Toyota Motor Company, where Lean originates, is described as a learning organization. Therefore, a management approach and leader behavior supporting organizational learning would be required to successfully implement an enterprise system inspired by both the Toyota Production System and Lean. This thesis approaches the Lean concept through an organizational learning perspective, thereby highlighting the importance of knowledge of organizational learning in a Lean development effort. Difficulties regarding Lean implementations have been shown to often occur due to the overlooked but crucial differences in approach in management. There is, however a stated gap in the literature on Lean production regarding management. The purpose of this thesis is to explore senior management’s ability to implement and sustain a Lean-based enterprise system. Three studies are included in the thesis. The first study focuses on how the view on Lean among managers implementing Lean affects its implementation. The study was performed as a case study and conducted at a larger, international manufacturing company. The study covered management levels from shop floor manager to the president of the company. Findings show that all management levels had a similar view of Lean and that this influenced the implementation. The first study further showed that the view on Lean may develop and change during an implementation, revealing unforeseen managerial and organizational challenges and obstacles.The second study focused on how management of Lean is described in the existing literature. The results revealed a dualistic complementarity between leadership and management, which can be seen as reflected in the two foundational Toyota principles of continuous improvement and respect for people. This duality can also be found in descriptions of prerequisites for organizational learning where the ability to combine transactional and transformational leadership is considered a success factor. The third study focused on implications for senior management and aimed to research senior managers’ ability to support a Lean implementation process. The study is based on interviews with eight senior managers. The study revealed four main managerial obstacles to Lean implementation. Lack of initial competence evaluation and ensuing competence development for senior management was found to be a central obstacle to Lean implementation. Main conclusions in the thesis are that initial understanding of the aims of a Lean implementation, and the ensuing implications for the organization is central in order to be able to support the development. Additionally, initial senior management competence development is indicated to be vital in order to ensure the ability to understand the organizational and managerial implications brought on by a Lean implementation. Leading with action is indicated as providing an opportunity for senior management competence development.
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