Alexander Thunell och David Ohlsson presenterar sitt examensarbete.

Examinator: Peter Hammersberg, IMS

Opponenter: Birta Hákonardóttir och Robert Hedlund

Alexander Thunell (MPQOM) och David Ohlsson (MPPEN) presenterar

Abstract
AB SKF is a global multinational bearing manufacturer with headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden. SKF is best known for the self-aligning bearing, a product which is currently produced in the Gothenburg factory. SKF strives to achieve the organizational vision “A world of reliable rotation” by continuously working towards improving both the products and the organization from within. Different departments work alongside and together to achieve the high-quality demands. Production has come a long way in the Gothenburg factory and a few automatic bearing assembly channels are almost classified as industry 4.0. However, misoriented rollers occur in the automatic assembly channels which results in production stops, quality issues, customer complaints, and hinders the organization from fully realizing industry 4.0.
The problem regarding misoriented rollers needed to be further investigated to determine actions to assess the problem and the impact on the organization. This thesis was conducted to identify the root causes of misoriented rollers and how the root causes could be mitigated or eliminated. Additionally, the thesis brought forward improvement areas for the current approach when identifying and eliminating root causes within the organization. Initially, it was believed that historical data of stops in the automatic assembly channels represented misoriented rollers originating upstream in roller production channels. However, several root causes were found throughout the production system including roller production channels, transport, and the automatic assembly. Communication between and within departments was also deemed as one of the major areas that needed to be improved after investigating why the problem had not been solved earlier. The root causes were identified using the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology.
The findings of the study concluded that eliminating all root causes would not be feasible. Instead, the solution should mitigate effects of root causes upstream and ensure that operations downstream can handle incoming variation. Lastly, the findings and analysis of the performed study showed that there are aspects in the organizational quality improvement work that can be improved. It was concluded that sufficient resources must be available to successfully collect enough facts to accurately define and understand complex problems.