This paper presents an experiment that investigated the potential benefits of virtual reality (VR) environments in supporting assembly planning. In the experiment, fifteen subjects performed an assembly planning task in three different conditions: a traditional engineering environment (TE), a nonimmersive desktop VR (DVR) environment, and an immersive care automatic virtual environment (CAVE) V…
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 …
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 syst…
To identify operations and logistics issues which are critical for the operational performance in modular assembly processes.
Discusses experiences from the design of parallellized flow assembly systems. Also discusses factors influencing the performance of collective work and relates these to the flow parameters in the Saab Automobile′s final assembly plant in Malmö and the Volvo Uddevalla final assembly plant. Illustrates this discussion by empirical data from the shopfloor of the Volvo Uddevalla plant. Focuses…
The purpose of this paper is to determine how kitting, compared to continuous supply, affects the time spent by the assembler fetching parts in manual assembly.