Traceability of Human Error Production Defects in Automotive Manufacturing

Abstract: Many global automotive industries have moved towards factory automation, yet several still rely on collecting manual data from the plant floor and manually inputting the data into the management quality system in the assembly line. In this case study research, the objective of our study was to observe how technology advancement can be supported for human error logging in the quality assurance process. The study was conducted over the course of 7 weeks where we analyzed the traceability of human error production defects in Volvo Cars AB located at Torslanda, Gothenburg. Triangulation from three data sources – interviews, observations, and artifacts – reveals that the process is done using paper and manually inputted into the system which leads to human errors and to possible delays. The solution that is perceived from existing literature and our findings suggest that factory automation is a foreseeable solution for the company and other manufacturing companies dealing with the same issues.