
Ann-Christine FalckChalmers University of Technology · Industrial and Material Science Department of Product and Production Development
Ann-Christine Falck
PhD; Associate professor Eur. Erg; Senior researcher
About
22
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 2004 - February 2016
Publications
Publications (22)
In manufacturing companies, cognitive processing is required from assembly workers to perform correct and timely assembly of complex products, often with varied specifications and high quality demands. This paper explores assembly operators’ perceptions of cognitive/mental workload to provide a holistic understanding of the work conditions that aff...
In paced assembly lines, cognitive processing is required from assembly workers to perform correct and timely assembly of complex products with varying specifications. This interview study involving 75 industrial assemblers, design- and manufacturing engineers explores how assemblers’ cognitive performance is influenced by multiple factors within t...
There are several theoretical methods for assessment of assembly complexity but there are few practically applicable methods. One of the methods, CompleXity Index (CXI), aims at assessing operators’ perception of manual assembly complexity in running production. Another recently developed method, Basic Assembly Complexity (CXB) is intended for pred...
Increasing design and assembly complexity are challenges facing the automotive industry today because increasing number of car variants and build options can result in immense difficulties and lead to costly assembly errors and quality losses. In order to remain on the market these conditions must nevertheless be managed by companies in hard compet...
Tough competition force companies to develop and increase their product assortment in order to maintain their market share. This has resulted in numerous product variants with more features and build options. The complexity and risk of quality errors will increase. Managing complex product and installation conditions will result in distinct competi...
Geometry assurance is an important part of quality assurance in the manufacturing industry. Typically virtual geometry assurance is done in Computer Aided Tolerancing (CAT) tools. Earlier research shows that assembly complexity influences the product quality but is not considered in CAT simulations. Recently a new robustness value in CAT has been i...
A major challenge for manufacturing companies today is to manage a huge amount of product variants and build options at the same time in manufacturing engineering and in production. The overall complexity and risk of quality errors in manual assembly will increase placing high demands on the operators who must manage many different tasks in current...
Purpose - This paper compares two methods for assessing manual assembly complexity. The objective was to see if and how the two methods overlapped.
Design/methodology/approach - Methods studied were the CXB considering basic assembly complexity from product design perspective and the CXI, which assesses complexity as perceived by operators in produ...
The purpose of this paper is to explore how a recently developed method for evaluation of the impact of assembly complexity on manual assembly concepts should be used, by whom and how this would fit into an industrial product development process.
The explored method incorporates both sensitivity to geometrical variation and assessment of assembly c...
This study aimed at comparing two methods for assessing manual assembly complexity, the CXB considering basic assembly complexity from product design perspective and the CXI, which assesses complexity as perceived by operators in production. The objective was to see if and how the two methods overlap. The results showed that they had some assessmen...
The objective of this study was to explore correlation between CAT (Computer Aided Tolerancing) simulation and physically measured results in running production with focus on operator dependant factors. Therefore, the manual assembly of 25 different system solutions (locating scheme, tolerances, fasteners etc for a part) was analyzed. The study has...
The objective of this study was to explore how assembly ergonomics issues were regarded by geometry engineers. Therefore, 21 geometry engineers in two manufacturing companies were interviewed. Their answers show good awareness of the implications of poor assembly ergonomics but appropriate working procedures and support in CAT (Computer Aided Toler...
Despite health and safety legislation and ergonomics regulations for several years many Swedish companies are still unable to effectively prevent the consequences of poor ergonomics. Corrective measures are often made (too) late when employees complain and work-related disorders have already occurred. Besides, several studies have shown that poor e...
For cost-beneficial reasons simulations with computer manikins have been increasingly used in the automotive industry for prediction of ergonomics problems before the product and work place exist in physical form. The main purpose of ergonomics simulations is to apply biomechanical models and data to assess the acceptability of the physical work lo...
The study aimed at analyzing the relationship between assembly ergonomics, assemblability (“ease of assembly”), and product quality and at quantifying these relationships in economic terms. This was in order to better to support the development of more ergonomic product and assembly solutions, particularly at early stages of the car development pro...
The influence of assembly ergonomics on product quality in car manufacturing – a cost-benefit approach Car manufacturing is often associated with poor working environment resulting in musculoskeletal disorders and high sick leave among assembly workers. Besides, a number of studies have proven that there is a clear correlation between assembly ergo...
Task characteristics such as visual and manual demands influence the postures employed and the muscular load during task execution. According to ergonomic experts at a car assembly plant, these demands are difficult to predict during product and production development and can easily be underestimated. One such task with combined visual and manual d...
The paper reports on an evaluation of a method called ErgoSAM. This method is based on SAM, a higher-level method-time-measurement (MTM) system, and is for use by production planners, e.g. production engineers. In addition to the SAM information, the ErgoSAM method considers information on weight handled or forces applied and work zone. The method...