Extended Work Cycle Assembly - A crucial learning experience

Journal article, 1994

This paper reports on a crucial learning experience relating to design principles applied in the Volvo Car Corporation final assembly plant in Uddevalla, Sweden. These principles include the concept of holistic learning, specifically through the creation and transformation of complementary, interrelated physical, semantical, and cognitive structures. We report on the learning environment and learning aids, as well as the learning method applied to the assembly of one-quarter of an automobile performed by one single person. Through the application of this learning concept, it proved possible to dramatically reduce the learning time required for long cycle time assembly work, making cycle times of 2 hours or more a practical proposition for full-scale automotive manufacturing today.