Assessment Based Information Needs in Manual Assembly

To handle the complex and flexible manufacturing of today it is vital to have well functional information systems for the operators so that they know when, what and where to assemble. The current designs of assembly work instructions differ much between companies, but also between plants within the same company. The digitalization trends and initiatives such as Industry 4.0 show the manufacturing industry the advantages to incorporate new methods and tools into their businesses. Even though manufacturing IT systems are designed to be adaptive to product and volume changes, they are still widely characterized by their rigid structures. Making large changes to manufacturing IT systems with comprehensive structures is complex and requires large amounts of resources. Therefore, it is important for the manufacturing companies to make the correct investments. In previous studies, two current state analyses have been conducted with the aim to map manufacturing engineering processes and IT systems producing assembly work instructions in a mass customization context. This paper presents results from the third part of a longitudinal study which focuses on identifying operators’ information needs in manual assembly of heavy vehicles. This third study aims to identify the information gap between the current state and the wanted state by assessing information needs at 13 assembly stations in three plants belonging to a global production network. The purpose is to identify design requirements for future assembly information systems enabling the practical use of the digitalization

Enhancing Future Assembly Information Systems – Putting Theory into Practice

The manufacturing industry is in a changing state where technology advancements change the mindset of how manufacturing systems will function in the future. Industry 4.0 provides manufacturing companies with new methods for improved decision-making processes and dynamic process control. Despite this ambition, the manufacturing industry is far away from implementing this approach in practice. Assembly information systems will play an even more vital role enabling information transfer from product design to shop floor assembly in the future. To prepare the industry for these changes that are foreseen and for those that are yet to be discovered, a learning factory environment is vital. Such an environment is intended to support the industry during the development of assembly information systems. This paper presents an industrial demonstrator which incorporates well-known methods for improving assembly work stations with the perspective on assembly information systems. These methods are still not widely used in manual assembly intense manufacturing companies. This demonstrator illustrates how established theories can be practically used when designing future assembly information systems. The demonstrator will be used to validate functionalities and requirements for future assembly information systems

Computer Support for Preparatory Training in Automotive Assembly

The automotive industry is facing new challenges constantly. Reduction of waste and time-to-market, the ability to offer the customer a unique combination of options and high product quality are examples of issues that have been in focus during the last decade and are still considered very important. Shorter product life cycles and the fact that completely different vehicles are often produced on the same assembly line are, together with the aforementioned issues, factors that influence the way new vehicles are launched and produced. The assembly operators constitute a central part of the production system and their skills and ability to produce high quality are issues that will always be in focus. Cost reduction and a change towards more computer based product development methods provide a potential to reduce prototype vehicles to a minimum or even completely. The latter change has affected the training of operators’ prior vehicle launches in a dramatic way since the traditional way to utilize components from prototype vehicles for training purposes has become quite limited. Consequently the new conditions have created a strong need for alternative training methods. The starting point for the work has been to find methods that are based on already generated engineering information and use them on ordinary desktop computers for the training of experienced assembly operators. The work has been carried out as case studies, all performed in an assembly plant with experienced assembly operators as subjects. The research has been concentrated on understanding this specific area and how this type of training should be organized to best support the operators during a launch of new vehicles. The result shows that computer based training is an effective tool and preparatory training of assembly operators can be performed in an efficient way by using the defined and explored expert based learning model. The model provides training that supports all operators, including the leaders of the operator teams and it connects the training environment and the real assembly situation on the assembly line in a positive way. A defined framework with four operator knowledge phases named: Product, Process, Assembly sequence and Finesse are presented. The results from the case studies, combined with the defined framework constitute the base for a proposed concept for computer based preparatory training. The concept includes two major training activities and one of them –- is the focus of this work. The aim of this work has been to develop an understanding for how computers can be used in the training of operators, especially to prepare and support learning in launch training. With the accomplished studies an important step towards deeper understanding has been achieved. However, additional research is needed in order to verify and further develop the proposed concept

Virtual Training - Preparatory Training in Automotive Assembly

The automotive industry is constantly facing new challenges. Reduction of waste and time-to-market, ability to offer the customer a unique combination of options as well as high product quality are examples of issues that have been in focus during the past decade and still considered extremely important. Together with the aforementioned issues, other factors that influence the way in which new vehicles are launched and produced are shorter product life cycles and the fact that completely different vehicles are often manufactured on the same assembly line. Assembly operators constitute a central part of the production system and their skills and ability to ensure high quality will always be in focus. Cost reduction and a shift towards more virtual product development methods provide the potential to reduce prototype vehicles to a minimum or even completely. This has dramatically affected the training of experienced assembly operators prior to the launch of a new vehicle since the traditional way of utilizing prototype vehicle components for training purposes is more or less non-existent. Consequently, the new conditions have created a strong need for alternative training methods. The starting point for the present work was to identify methods based on previously generated engineering information and use them on ordinary desktop computers for the training of experienced assembly operators. The work was carried out as case studies, all performed in an assembly plant with experienced assembly operators as subjects. The research mainly concentrated on understanding this specific area and how such training should be organized to best support the operators during a new vehicle launch. The results demonstrated that virtual training is an effective tool for preparatory training of assembly operators as well as training in the later stages when detailed assembly sequences and quality related issues (finesse) are in focus. Preparatory training can be performed in an efficient way by using the defined and explored expert based learning model. On the other hand, assembly sequence and finesse training is appropriate for the defined system learning model. The design of the studies was based on a defined framework with four operator knowledge phases: Product, Process, Assembly sequence and Finesse. The results of the case studies combined with the above-mentioned framework constituted the basis for a proposed virtual preparatory training concept. This concept included two major virtual training activities where the first two knowledge phases formed the base for the first activity and the two final phases the foundation for the second.The aim was to develop an understanding of how computers can be used in the training of operator s, especially in the preparation and support of launch training. As a result of our studies, an important step towards a deeper understanding has been achieved

Improved Quality Output through Computer Based Training - an Automotive Assembly Field Study

In this article, two field experiments, conducted in an automotive assembly plant, evaluate how computer-based training of operational sequences and related quality information can support the assembly performance of the operators. The experiments were performed during the launch of a new vehicle. A comparison was made of learning progress and quality performance between a reference group of operators that only had regular training and a test group for which some of the regular training was replaced with individual computer-based training. Both quantitative measures of the quality output and questionnaires and observations were used to evaluate the effects of computer-based training. The results show a clear positive difference in learning progress and improvements in quality output for the test group compared with the reference group. This combined with positive attitudes expressed by the operators and their team leaders shows that this type of training is an effective way to train operators during launches of new vehicles in automotive production

DHM in Automotive Manufacturing Applications

This chapter covers the main reasons for the use of Digital Human Modelling tools in the automotive manufacturing industry. The focus is entirely on physical digital human modelling, not on cognitive digital human modelling. Important aspects regarding work process and organization are covered as well as how companies deal with some identified shortcomings. The chapter also describes how fewer physical prototype vehicles has made it necessary to find new methods for training of operators adapted to the new conditions. Finally, also an example of a simulation case from the order of the case to the result presentation is given

DHM in Automotive Manufacturing Applications

This chapter covers the main reasons for the use of Digital Human Modelling tools in the automotive manufacturing industry. The focus is entirely on physical digital human modelling, not on cognitive digital human modelling. Important aspects regarding work process and organization are covered as well as how companies deal with some identified shortcomings. The chapter also describes how fewer physical prototype vehicles has made it necessary to find new methods for training of operators adapted to the new conditions. Finally, also an example of a simulation case from the order of the case to the result presentation is given