Alternatives to Line Assembly: Some Swedish examples

• 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.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Övrig annan teknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Keyword

ergonomics

autonomous workgroups

alternatives to line assembly

sociotechnology

small workgroups

Volvo Uddevalla plant

learning and training

restructuring of information systems

parallel product flows

manufacturing technology

long work cycle times

materials feeding techniques

assembly work

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)