| 1. |
- Blomquist, Bo, 1958, et al.
(author)
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Arbetsrapport av genomförd enkätundersökning vid Volvo Lastvagnars fabrik i Umeå 3 juli 2004
- 2004
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Consumer report (“avnämarrapport” in Swedish) for the company in question which is financed by the company (through the Swedish Metall Workers Union, Metall) and partly also by a research foundation. It is a questionnaire survey, in this case, a so-called total survey of all blue-collar employees dealing with assembly work. In fact, it was a part of a more extensive so-called wage earner consultant report carried out at Logistics and Transportation (no private consultant initiative).
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| 2. |
- Engström, Tomas, 1950, et al.
(author)
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Linking Two Automotive Companies’ Organisational Structures to their Materials Flow Systems
- 2004
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This almost completed article (preprint not yet published due to one of the two authors retirement) is a sort of summarization carried out until this specific point of time, of the author's combined methods. That is, to analyse production systems using collections of company data, interviews, questionnaire surveys, video-registration, etc. For example, this has been accomplished by means of constructions so-called schematic layouts. Such layouts illuminate the general function of the production system in question. Especially so, in comparison with e.g. the actual drawings of the building facilities.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Engström, Tomas, 1950, et al.
(author)
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Reconstructing the History of the Main Volvo Tuve Plant: Some general trends, reasons and consequences for different assembly system designs
- 2004
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In: International Journal of Operations and Production Management. - : Emerald. - 1758-6593 .- 0144-3577. ; 24:8, s. 820-839
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper reports on the history of the main Volvo Tuve truck plant in Gothenburg from its beginnings in 1981 until 2002. It focuses on the assembly work involved in the completion of truck chassis carried out by blue‐collar employees. Extensive (physical) alterations during this period have been important for understanding the plants' present design. The various designs of the assembly system, in combination with alterations and changes, have radically reformed the blue‐collar employee's work in a way that, in most respects, had not been intended. The ambitious guidelines, design assumptions and praxis of the early plant design which promoted collective dimensions of work have shifted to ones in which assembly work can be seen more as a set of individualised tasks. Moreover, the plant, which in earlier times had been small‐scale and utilised a heterogeneous assembly systems design, now has been transformed into a large‐scale plant with a homogeneous assembly systems design. That is, to be more specific, two rather short assembly lines with intermediate buffers (1980s assembly systems design) were turned into the use of extended assembly lines without intermediate buffers (1990s assembly systems designs). The latter assembly systems were earlier working in coexistence with so‐called assembly docks (small workgroups completed their own truck chassis). Lastly, these heterogeneous assembly systems designs were recently changed by further extension of the two main product flows and the assembly docks were closed down (2000s assembly system design). We argue that the choice of assembly systems designs was, and maybe still is, an ad hoc process and not a truly rational process. The history of the Volvo Tuve plant history illuminates how one specific plant can illustrate an uneven line of development with regard to assembly system design, within an organisation which successively has turned more international by an ongoing process of creating one single, larger scale, assembly system design. Thereby leaving behind the characteristics which were once a trademark of the Swedish automotive industry
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| 5. |
- Jonsson, Dan, 1942, et al.
(author)
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Some Considerations Relating to the Reintroduction of Assembly Lines in Swedish Automotive Industry
- 2004
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In: International Journal of Operations and Production Management. - : Emerald. - 1758-6593 .- 0144-3577. ; 24:8, s. 754 - 772
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In recent years, assembly lines have been reintroduced in the Swedish automotive industry and, in many cases, have replaced those so-called alternative assembly systems which had their roots in the 1970s. This paper reviews and evaluates some explicit reasons given for the return to the assembly line. It also considers whether the decisions to replace alternative assembly systems with assembly lines may have been driven by other factors and mechanisms than those implicit in these arguments and, if so, what other factors could explain their reintroduction. There is also a discussion of which dimensions that should be taken into account when choosing between alternative assembly systems and assembly lines and empirical data are used to shed more light on the issues discussed in the article. The authors report one study that compares automobile assembly in an alternative assembly system with the assembly of the same products after introducing an assembly line. They also briefly discuss reasons for and experiences from the recent introduction of alternative assembly systems in the Japanese electronics industry. In this case, so-called cellular assembly systems have replaced assembly lines. A comment: Note that the most socio-technically advanced assembly system designs (like the Volvo Uddevalla plant) inventible requires reformed/reconfigured information systems dealing with product data (which in turn defines the product architecture and product variation) (see other publications registered in Chalmer Public Library CPL). In fact, no any such (real-life) plant or assembly system would work as anticipated otherwise. And this publication is only partly describing some selected aspects of this (very) dilemma (changing information systems are usually not something considered than designing assembly systems) (thus are totally new plants – and in turn totally new information systems – most often the real practical change to create something unorthodox) (however, which scientist will gain such opportunities, this is really rare, i.e. the projection of the Volvo Uddevalla plant was thus an exception and the trust given by the industry – by Volvo Uddevalla project organisation – was appreciated by some of the authors).
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