Virtuell montering i tidiga faser av produktutveckling

Sammanfattning: This study has been a co-production between Mälardalen university and a company to see how a project can work with Virtual Reality (VR). The purpose of the report is to help develop a method proposal for virtual assembly in VR in the early stages of the product development process at the company and to help other companies in similar situations. The aim was how the new technology shall be incorporated into a process for the company through an effective and systematic approach. To get there, it needs to develop a work method in the processes for when, how and why the technology should be used and who should use it.Therefore, three research questions (RQ:s) were formulated; RQ1: How does the process look like today regarding virtual assembly in VR at the early stages of product development? RQ2: What prerequisites must exist to be able to implement Virtual assembly at the early stages of product development? RQ3: What can be tested using virtual assembly in VR at the early stages of product development? To answer these questions, observations, interviews and a literature study from relevant articles on the subject were used. These articles were found by searching in various scientific databases with different search terms. The interviews were used to gain insight into how the company is working with VR now and what prerequisites would be needed to implement VR into the projects. In this study, direct observations in meetings, tutoring and conversations were used both in physical and virtual environments to get a deeper understanding of the company's problem. The report resulted in these conclusions:The company did not have a work method for virtual assembly with VR at the early stages. However, there were no description for virtual assembly with VR in any part of the company's product development process. If there is no work method about virtual assembly with VR in the company's product development process can these identified preconditions support; understanding the gain with VR, educated workers, the workers having an interest, having room for VR with hardware and software. These preconditions can facilitate the work, which could reduce time and save money for the project. This investigation show that a project can test seven VR variables. These variables are assembly, assembly complications, accessibility, risks, quality, visualisation and does it fit in the factory. All these variables show that VR has great protentional but how much VR can test depends on the company’s prerequisites. Finally, based on the findings in this study and in order to facilitate work with virtual assembly in VR in the early stages of product development, the report presents a prototype checklist with three steps. The data gathered in the study only comes from one company, so the proposal for further research include validation of the checklist in several industries.