A study of how Lean principles affect process ergonomics : A case study at Volvo CE Braås using discrete event simulation

Sammanfattning: To stay competitive in today's market, organizations focus on efficiency to reduce costs. Since there are still processes that are manually handled, there is a risk of affecting workers health during streamlining. Volvo CE Braås are currently working with a takt time of 35 minutes throughout their facility. They are looking to implement a takt flow system on their Pallet breakdown disassembly line to unify the systems within the company. The current situation of the pallet breakdown consists of variation, ergonomic issues, inconsistencies, disturbances and lay-out problems. Main problems have remained unidentified. The goal of the thesis has been to determine how optimization as well as, takt time implementation affects the workers. The aim of the thesis has been to analyze their current situation, present relevant changes to be made and to improve the ergonomics of the employees. Methods such as flow mapping, surveys, gemba walks and interviews have contributed to a basis of understanding. The methods have, together with selected theory, contributed to important knowledge and understanding of the disassembly system, that has led to conclusions and recommendations regarding the impact of optimization and takt time implementation on ergonomics. By using ergonomic guidelines together with discrete event simulation, an identification of human factors when optimizing has been detected. For Volvo CE to successfully implement takt time, several optimizations are needed together with relevant investments to ensure that the ergonomic values are kept on an appropriate level when the frequency of tasks increases. As a conclusion, to optimize a system which has a direct impact on the employees, there is a need to investigate the ergonomic values of today together with values after optimization. Optimization can not occur without investing in tools.