Managing the Factory of the Future

Abstract

The automotive industry is undergoing a rapid transformation due to the advancements of smart technologies, changing customer behaviours, and increasing demands for sustainability, requiring manufacturing practices to be re-evaluated. Industry 5.0, the latest industrial revolution, has been developed to address this, re-emphasising the role of humans in manufacturing processes and seeking to utilise the unique strengths of humans, such as creativity and reasoning. The study aims to explore improvements to the management of manufacturing at Volvo Cars, building on the human-centric principles of Industry 5.0. The study examines the current trends in manufacturing management and the current state of management practices within the Volvo Cars Manufacturing System, ultimately proposing specific improvement suggestions for Volvo Cars manufacturing management practices. The study was conducted by a combination of literature review, on-site observations, and interviews. The study identified four key principles to achieve more human-centric manufacturing. These were the utilisation and continuous development of human-specific strengths; only involve humans when necessary or advantageous; distributing the right information to the right people; and improving working conditions, wellbeing and job satisfaction. The study also identified three currently inhibiting factors to human-centric management at Volvo Cars; time constraints, analogue systems, and human-specific strengths being underutilised. Lastly, four practical improvement suggestions were proposed, designed with the intention of being realistically possible to implement at Volvo Cars within a 5-year timespan, and to function as guidance toward a full-scale transition into Industry 5.0.