Design for Service

Abstract: The service department at ABB Robotics has low influence over product development projects at the R&D department. This low influence often results in that the R&D department develops products that are not optimal constructed and designed, to facilitate a good repair and planned maintenance process. This master thesis will investigate and propose changes so that, in future product development project, the R&D department considers the needs of the service department. The objective of the master thesis was to update the Pulse State Tool, a tool that was first developed to help the service department to identify product development project where the service department needs to be more involved in. Furthermore, the Gate-model that ABB Robotics uses, was updated to give the service department a higher possibility to influence product development project. Finally, the last objective was to develop a Checklist to identify service related aspects that the product development project should address to increase the reliability, maintainability, and serviceability of the resulting product. The purpose of the master thesis is to investigate the current process at the service department and how they currently are involved in product development project. Furthermore, a concrete Design for Service process was proposed. The DMAIC problem solving process found in the Six Sigma methodology inspired the used problem solving process for the master thesis. During the master thesis, one revolution of the DMAIC process is called a circle. Several circles were used throughout the problem solving process. Both the objective and purpose of the master thesis was satisfied and the master thesis can be regarded as successful.