Ergonomic Design of a New Assembly Skid - A Case Study at a Swedish Truck Manufacturing Company
(2013) MMK920 20131Innovation
- Abstract
- This thesis project was performed in collaboration with Scania CV AB’s cab factory in Oskarshamn, Sweden, and the objective was to accomplish a product development process regarding a new assembly skid from an ergonomic perspective. A great number of aspects had to be noticed and evaluated, both regarding the process the skid is aiming to support and the product it concerns. The focus was the functions that are required and desired for a skid to find the optimal solution and consequently, solve the ergonomic problems.
A research about the assemblers’ work and work situation was carried out to achieve an understanding for the common problems in this kind of environment. The overall results from questionnaires, interviews and... (More) - This thesis project was performed in collaboration with Scania CV AB’s cab factory in Oskarshamn, Sweden, and the objective was to accomplish a product development process regarding a new assembly skid from an ergonomic perspective. A great number of aspects had to be noticed and evaluated, both regarding the process the skid is aiming to support and the product it concerns. The focus was the functions that are required and desired for a skid to find the optimal solution and consequently, solve the ergonomic problems.
A research about the assemblers’ work and work situation was carried out to achieve an understanding for the common problems in this kind of environment. The overall results from questionnaires, interviews and observations showed that there are many opportunities to adapt the skid to the assemblers and consequently, avoiding the risk of work injuries, contribute to good working conditions and in the end influence the assembler to do a high-quality work.
With information from our research, ergonomic product specifications were established and brainstorming was used to generate concepts aiming to meet these specifications. The concepts were then evaluated and ranked against different criteria, based both on customer needs and the authors’ opinions and competence. One of the main ergonomic problems was considered to be the entering/exiting of the cab during assembly work and therefore the work was focused on this issue. In order to assess which, in this context, is the most optimal height a usability test was performed aiming to study different kinds of stairs containing varying step heights. The test persons’ opinions were that the step most similar to a standard step height was the most comfortable one, but they all agreed on that this is not advantageous if it results in too many steps.
Finally, the specifications and results from the studies were used to give recommendations for Scania, the further work with the skid and future ergonomic development processes. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/3915780
- author
- Bertheden, Lena LU and Nyman Gunnarsson, Sofie LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MMK920 20131
- year
- 2013
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Ergonomics, Assembly process, Work-related injuries, Product Development, Ergonomic specifications
- language
- English
- id
- 3915780
- date added to LUP
- 2013-07-03 08:48:05
- date last changed
- 2013-07-03 08:48:05
@misc{3915780,
abstract = {{This thesis project was performed in collaboration with Scania CV AB’s cab factory in Oskarshamn, Sweden, and the objective was to accomplish a product development process regarding a new assembly skid from an ergonomic perspective. A great number of aspects had to be noticed and evaluated, both regarding the process the skid is aiming to support and the product it concerns. The focus was the functions that are required and desired for a skid to find the optimal solution and consequently, solve the ergonomic problems.
A research about the assemblers’ work and work situation was carried out to achieve an understanding for the common problems in this kind of environment. The overall results from questionnaires, interviews and observations showed that there are many opportunities to adapt the skid to the assemblers and consequently, avoiding the risk of work injuries, contribute to good working conditions and in the end influence the assembler to do a high-quality work.
With information from our research, ergonomic product specifications were established and brainstorming was used to generate concepts aiming to meet these specifications. The concepts were then evaluated and ranked against different criteria, based both on customer needs and the authors’ opinions and competence. One of the main ergonomic problems was considered to be the entering/exiting of the cab during assembly work and therefore the work was focused on this issue. In order to assess which, in this context, is the most optimal height a usability test was performed aiming to study different kinds of stairs containing varying step heights. The test persons’ opinions were that the step most similar to a standard step height was the most comfortable one, but they all agreed on that this is not advantageous if it results in too many steps.
Finally, the specifications and results from the studies were used to give recommendations for Scania, the further work with the skid and future ergonomic development processes.}},
author = {{Bertheden, Lena and Nyman Gunnarsson, Sofie}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Ergonomic Design of a New Assembly Skid - A Case Study at a Swedish Truck Manufacturing Company}},
year = {{2013}},
}