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| 2. |
- Cyrén, Henrik, et al.
(author)
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Task Specific Exposure Information as a Basis for Production System Design
- 1998
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This publication was written during a period of time when the authors were engaged in an extensive research programme financed by the National Institute for Working Life in Solna (Cooperative for Optimisation of industrial production systems regarding Productivity and Ergonomics COPE).
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| 3. |
- Davies, Roy, et al.
(author)
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Work and Work Place Design Using Empirical Shop Floor Information and Virtual Reality Techniques
- 1997
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In: IEA'97 "From Experience to Innovation". ; 2, s. 25-27
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Work place design based on traditional ergonomic science has, to a large extent, been delimited by information collected from studies of individual human beings. This research approach has not been proven to influence industry shop floor work to an extent corresponding to what could be expected from research efforts (Winkel and Westgaard, 1995). Thus the practitioners are left to decide about the detailed work place design, neglecting scientific knowledge. The accelerating development within technical as well as social sciences, combined with the industrial development of production systems has, in fact, blurred the vision and method arsenal available for those interested in fitting the production system to the man. However, new prospects have, at the same time, been made available through expanding personal computer and Virtual Reality (VR) techniques implying untraditional analysis procedures for work and work place design as will be illustrated in this paper. The aim of this paper is to illuminate the feasibility of such a prospect using personal computer-,. video- and VR-techniques to amalgamate empirical shop floor information especially collected for design purposes with computer models of work. Two case studies, denoted case I and case II, will be shortly described from which an integration will be discussed.
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| 5. |
- Engström, Tomas, 1950, et al.
(author)
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Alternatives to Line Assembly: Some Swedish examples
- 1996
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In: International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. - 1872-8219 .- 0169-8141. ; 17:3, s. 235-245
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In recent years, some criticism of Lean production has occurred, focusing among other things on the working conditions and the susceptibility of traditional assembly work in a society upgrading the demands for a more humanized work. Recently, this criticism has also concerned the technical aspects of this type of manufacturing. Because of this, alternatives to line assembly merit some attention. Experiences from some innovative production systems operated in the Swedish automotive industry during the last two decades are of particular interest. These unconventional production systems feature autonomous work groups and extended work cycles. These types of production systems are elucidated in detail by means of e.g nuance the concept of utilising buffers, i.e. there are different types of buffers (or buffer functions) as is classified (or clarified) in this publications.
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| 6. |
- Engström, Tomas, 1950, et al.
(author)
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Automotive Industry
- 1997
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In: The Workplace – Major industries and occupations, Vol. 2, Brune, D., Gerhardsson, G., Crockford, G. W. and Norbäck, D. (eds.), International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre (CIS), International Labour Office Geneva, Scandinavian Science Publisher, Oslo. ; , s. 548-565
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
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| 7. |
- Engström, Tomas, 1950
(author)
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Avrapportering av projekt ”Dokumentation av Volvo Personvagnars slutmonteringsfabrik i Uddevalla”
- 1995
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This publication reports on some of a research foundation's (Arbetsmiljöfonden) financed parts of Engström’s and his colleagues' (researchers a well as other individuals) participation in the design, development, starting-up and full-scale production phases of the Volvo Automobile assembly plant in Uddevalla. This particular initiative (for the publication now treated here) resulted on in the fact that all of the documents from this assembly plant was collected (thereafter sorted on site in order to eliminate redundancies), and finally were each and every binder of documents etc. sent to the basement at of Engström’s final experimental workshop located at Chalmers University of Technology (such workshops are nowadays utopian, see below). There these documents were harboured at this premise for several years until totally new building facilities were provided for a number of different departments. At this moment were rents accelerated (bewildering costs was claimed on individual scientists) (an experimental workshop proved to be utopian). Engström’s research group was therefore forced to let this documentation to be sent to external store rented outside of Chalmers. Moreover, this documentation included (in a similar manner but much better prepared from our side), all of the documents from the Volvo Kalmar assembly plant which was closed approximately a year after the Volvo Uddevalla assembly plant (see some of the other publications registered in Chalmers Public Library CPL). Later on (more than approximately two decades), was this totally unique documentation transferred to Volvo’s Historical Archive (organised under the Volvo Museum) who in all respects mistreated this material and also unfortunately neglected a written agreement (contract) with Chalmers and Engström. In fact, it was by no means a professional treatment of the material in question. In fact, they gradually proved to neglect it. as a part of a protracted process, i.e. this Volvo organisation dragged for years to do anything at all with it (they changed manager and proved to not be able to deal with these two documentations in any professional manner, among other things due to lack of space and must probably for other reasons as well). On the other hand, interest and help from Chalmers side were almost non-existing, at the very end of Engström’s employment were some rather lame efforts to carried out. Individuals at Chalmers were afraid to create conflicts Volvo by asserting the contract due to ongoing financing and the fact that Engström had to retire anyway. Consequently, were no help available from Chalmers side to claim the agreement with the previous manager of Volvo Museum etc. As a result, this material from the two unique/pioneering assembly plants was forever lost to the scientist, or lest severely mutilated (see comment below) (sadly, we never got time to gain any academic merits of this material, it just cost money drawn from Engström's donation granted from Volvo Uddevalla assembly plant). And believe the author here, it was an enormous (almost frightening) amount of binders, books etc. each of them scrupulous registered by Engström and his research colleagues as well as by local Volvo personnel that also kindly helped us out. Note, two written agreement with the top manager of each of these two assembly plants were both predating the contract with the Volvo archive by decades. Among other things, the material was partly used once again by local Volvo personnel than the Autonova plant later was constructed, i.e. some years after the closing down, i.e. the rebirth of the Volvo Uddevalla plant. However, to be frank, here, some of the material was just thrown in pallets at the very end, due to time restraints during our documentation processes. But generally speaking, were most of the material fully organised and saved in bookshelves at the basement of our final experimental workshop at Chalmers (and each binder etc, was assigned a sequence number that corresponded to our register sequence number, denotation, finding-place etc. (in accordance with the written agreements with the two top managers). It was in many respects a bewildering work carried out during several years (e.g. it was not easy for us to figure out exactly how) besides during the period of closing down were not Volvo personnel keen to let the central Volvo organisation get hold of anything (no other would probably have managed to carry through such documentation for a number of different reasons). A comment and important: The documentation work from our side was organised in accordance with the process and organisation of each of the two assembly plants. Thus, was it not following the Swedish Archive Standard usually supported by rather unmanageable PC-based systems (which Volvo’s Historical Archive practised). This archive standard would, in fact, have fragmented et the two documentations, and thereby not enhanced a deeper understanding of each assembly plant (such standards are used for saving of single/individual documents or series thereof) (interrelation between binders and documents are thereby entirely lost). This fact was clear to us and also considered by the earlier manager at the Volvo archive and thus dealt with in the agreement between Chalmers and the historical archive. Among other things was Engström from the beginning supposed to help Volvo out by means of packing up the material. However, this was not considered by the new manager (who, as said before, neglected the registering and work carried out by Engström's research group).
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| 8. |
- Engström, Tomas, 1950, et al.
(author)
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Data Collection and Analysis of Manual Work Using Video Recording and Personal Computer Techniques
- 1997
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In: International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. - 1872-8219 .- 0169-8141. ; 19:4, s. 291-298
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This publication initially reports on data collection and analysis of assembly systems including manual work using the so-called `loss analysis' which we have applied to the automotive industry during two decades of research and development work. In the further development of this method of analysis we have during the last few years synchronized a personal computer and a video recorder, thereby facilitating data collection of true shop floor information, as well as developing the analysis procedure to also include ergonomic aspects and work performance in the analysis. This publication reports on: (1) the background, (2) the prototype equipment used for data collection and analysis which is illustrated by empirical data using the equipment to analyze stamping of sheet metal, as well as assembly of automobile doors and drivelines, and (3) how to integrate a `loss analysis' with an ergonomic analysis of working postures (in this specific case using the so-called OWAS technique) studying assembly work on an automobile door. In this case, we noted that the division of labour loss represents over 60% of the time consumption for assembly work. This analysis indicates that from an ergonomic point of view it is primarily worth studying what activities are included in the assembly work classified as OWAS workload level 2. Relevance to industry This paper describes and illustrates methods and equipment developed consisting of a synchronized personal computer and video recorder. This promotes a design based on empirical data for specific cases through facilitating the collection and analysis of shop floor information about manual work and process efficiency of interest for the design of assembly systems.
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| 10. |
- Engström, Tomas, 1950, et al.
(author)
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Developments in Assembly System Design: The Volvo Experience
- 1999
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In: Coping with Variety: Flexible Production Systems for Product Variety in the Automobile Industry; Lung, Y., Chanaron, J. J., Fujimoto, T. and Raff, D. (eds.); Ashgate, Aldershot. - : Routledge. - 9780429839931 ; , s. 192-223
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This chapter focuses on experiences concerning the development of assembly systems within the Volvo Corporation. It provides research and development work within the Swedish automotive industry. The chapter considers a specific trajectory concerning assembly system design in the Swedish automobile industry, generalising the Volvo Kalmar and Volvo Uddevalla experiences. During 1988–1990, the managers at Volvo were planning the manufacturing of the new 800 model at the main Volvo Torslanda plant, as well as looking for a total redesign of the plant. The average product quality in the Uddevalla plant was high–in fact better than in Volvo's line assembly plants–but the product quality varied considerably. Productivity and flexibility proved to be superior to traditional serialassembly systems. Two ways of decreasing the time losses are to introduce parallel flow assembly systems–that is assembly systems consisting of many, short, unpaced flows–or to introduce buffers between work-stations.
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