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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 mainly on the evolution of the intra‐group work pattern from the start in the training workshop to the final intra‐group work pattern and the assembly performance achieved before the closing down of the plant. Reports on management′s initial design assumptions communicated during the design of the Uddevalla plant. Comments on and revises these design assumptions, since they were far too simple and lacked the support of theoretical analysis and empirical evidence. The lack of a scientific explanation for the production and work organization principles communicated within Volvo might be one of the reasons for the closing down – it certainly was not the performance of the plant.

In this, the second part of a two‐part paper (Part I, Personnel Review, Summer 1977, pp 21–34) a survey of instances of work system design (WSD) experiments will be continued. As described in the Introduction to Part I, cases chosen for inclusion report the economic and human results of actual physical or structural innovations in a set or series of human tasks which, taken together, form some meaningful technical whole. The term ‘experiment’ is used in both Part I and II to refer loosely to change or manipulation of actual work activities, and not necessarily to well controlled laboratory experiments. In fact, most cases reported here are ‘natural’ and very few are carefully controlled.

Job design and work organisation are important current problems of industrial societies. It is argued that many jobs make low demands on the skills and abilities of employees, are monotonous and involve little obvious contribution to an identifiable task. This is seen as leading to low motivation to work. Attempts at increasing the ‘motivation potential’ of work are seen as means both of increasing employee satisfaction with work and leading to reduced absenteeism, labour turnover, increased output, improved quality and reduced waste. The literature contains many case descriptions of job design change based on assumptions of this type in which results of this nature are reported.

This chapter analyzes the intersectionality of inequalities based on class, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity within the Indignados (indignant or outraged people) movement of Spain. By analyzing the interpretative frames and organizational practices of the movement, we looked for influencing factors and the degree to which the movement has incorporated an intersectional perspective into its interpretative frames. Some of the frames did attend to the various inter-related forms of inequality. The factors influencing an intersectional perspective included: the presence of coexisting or inclusive forms of expressing the collective identity of the movement, mechanisms implemented to balance asymmetries among actors, and the confluence of three of the four dominant frames within the movement.

Demonstrates how different forms of assembly organization can be classified on the basis of three structural characteristics and analyses the possible relationships between these characteristics and the various dimensions of competitive advantage. Uses the resulting model of the “assembly organization cube” to show that ‐ apart from four “pure” forms of assembly organization ‐ there is a multitude of potential “hybrid” forms, all of which may be expected to support the competitive advantage of the business in different ways from one another. Applies the model to a case study of group working in a clothing manufacturing plant. Explains how the net effects of the move from progressive assembly in batches towards a form of assembly organization incorporating somewhat longer task cycles, tighter coupling, and a more horizontal form of co‐operation have been significant improvements in each of the dimensions of competitive advantage targeted (throughput times, product flexibility, in‐process quality, and production efficiency) as well as an increase in the level of job satisfaction of assembly operators.

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.

In a high‐mix middle‐volume production environment for printed circuit board (PCB) assembly, the production efficiency strongly depends not only on the tactical level of how to group PCBs but also on the operational level of how to assign feeders and determine placement sequences in the group setup strategy. The present study discusses the problem of clustering PCBs into groups in such a way that total placement and setup time can be minimized. This problem is motivated by a situation that the reduction of group setup‐time and efficiency loss of placement time should be balanced in a PCB group setup optimization. This research incorporates placement time into the PCB job grouping and presents a weighting similarity measure. To solve component‐feeder assignment and placement sequences for a family of PCBs, an efficient procedure based upon an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is developed. Group setup performance is evaluated and compared under a variety of grouping algorithms. Experiments are conducted to discover situations where the consideration of efficiency loss of placement time can make a significant improvement in PCB group assembly.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the benefit of pre-emptive disruption management measures for assembly systems towards the target dimension adherence to delivery times.

The research was conducted by creating simulation models for typical assembly systems and measuring its varying throughput times due to changes in their disruption profiles. Due to the variability of assembly systems, key influence factors were investigated and used as a foundation for the simulation setup. Additionally, a disruption profile for each simulated process was developed, using the established disruption categories material, information and capacity. The categories are described by statistical distributions, defining the interval between the disruptions and the disruption duration. By a statistical experiment plan, the effect of a reduced disruption potential onto the throughput time was investigated.

Pre-emptive disruption management is beneficial, but its benefit depends on the operated assembly system and its organisation form, such as line or group assembly. Measures have on average a higher beneficial impact on group assemblies than on line assemblies. Furthermore, it was proven that the benefit, in form of better adherence to delivery times, per reduced disruption potential has a declining character and approximates a distinct maximum.

Characterising the benefit of pre-emptive disruption management measures enables managers to use this concept in their daily production to minimise overall costs. Despite the hardly predictable influence of pre-emptive disruption measures, these research results can be implemented into a heuristic for efficiently choosing these measures.

Marking and inspecting are key steps in hull structure construction. However, currently most marking and inspecting operations are still carried out manually, which leads to low assembly efficiency and quality. This paper aims to solve these problems through the application of digital technology: the optical projection and machine vision.

First, the assembly process model of hull construction is established in 3D design environment. Second, the process information is presented to workers in a virtual form through optical projector, which provides accurate guidance for the manual operation. On this basis, the workers can complete welding and assembly operations readily. Finally, the machine vision method is used to check the assembly results, which can decrease the subjective errors.

A rapid and accurate assembly positioning for hull structure construction is realized based on optical projection, which can avoid the pollution caused by the marking machine and the error caused by human.

This paper combines the advantages of optical projection and machine vision to the field of shipbuilding. The shortcomings of the traditional marking and inspection methods is effectively solved, which may provide a new way for enhancing the assembly efficiency and quality.

Reports results from research collaboration between university and industry from the last six years (1985‐91) intensive work on the development of the radically new production concepts in use today in Volvo Car Corporation′s Uddevalla plant. Important breakthroughs in knowledge have been realized, including a product description adapted to assembly, new material supply systems and layouts for final assembly. This product description allowed performance to be determined for alternative production concepts. It is also a basic precondition for maintaining a logic in how the material is displayed and assembly work described, and is therefore formalized, principally through material supply systems, information systems and final assembly layouts. Emphasizes that efficient long cycle assembly work and flexible manufacturing assume both completely new preconditions on the shopfloor and a new management form. Makes clear, however, that these pre‐conditions demand a basically untraditional way of reasoning.