Enhancing Operational Excellence A Systematic Analysis of Material Flow in Battery Gigafactory Quality Control
| dc.contributor.author | Abrahamsson, Sofia | |
| dc.contributor.author | Dang, Viviane | |
| dc.contributor.department | Chalmers tekniska högskola / Institutionen för teknikens ekonomi och organisation | sv |
| dc.contributor.department | Chalmers University of Technology / Department of Technology Management and Economics | en |
| dc.contributor.examiner | Sjöberger, Carl | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Sjöberger, Carl | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-01-22T07:09:00Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-01-22T07:09:00Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | |
| dc.date.submitted | ||
| dc.description.abstract | As nations strive to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, the need for high-performance, durable batteries has increased drastically. One of the areas where this is especially important is the automotive industry, and one of the companies that have taken a part of this is Volvo Cars. They have adopted a new electrification strategy, with a decision to sell only electric cars from the year 2030. To meet the increased demand for batteries and ensure that the batteries are tailored for their cars, Volvo has formed a joint venture with the battery manufacturer Northvolt, called NOVO Energy. Spring of 2024, NOVO is in the design phase for a new battery factory that is being built next to Volvo Cars’ car factory in Gothenburg. They need to make sure that the material flows within the factory are efficient before the factory is finished, and one of the parts of the factory where this is essential is the quality lab. The purpose of this project was to identify bottlenecks in the material flow of samples within NOVO Energy's quality lab and propose solutions for how they can be minimized. This was done by analyzing data from Northvolt’s factory in Skellefteå, and completing it with updated requirements for NOVO. There were several bottlenecks that were discovered and the biggest three were the instruments CMM, Karl Fischer titration and VMZ. The root causes for them were investigated by the Five Whys and Fishbone Diagram methods, and the analysis revealed that they existed due to the sampling frequency being too high, the instruments being too slow and there being too few instruments of each type in the lab. Several ways to reduce the three bottlenecks were proposed. These were based on the priority list - in line tools, new technology, more instruments. The CMM could not be moved to in line or exchanged for a faster technology, so the solution was to invest in more instruments and decrease the sampling frequency. The Karl Fischer titration could not be turned to an in line tool either, but it could be replaced by a faster instrument called NIR. The VMZ could be moved in line and be supplemented with a few instruments in the lab for validation purposes. | |
| dc.identifier.coursecode | TEKX01 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12380/309095 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.setspec.uppsok | Technology | |
| dc.subject | Material flow | |
| dc.subject | Bottlenecks | |
| dc.subject | Five Whys | |
| dc.subject | Fishbone Diagram | |
| dc.subject | Quality control | |
| dc.subject | Battery cells | |
| dc.title | Enhancing Operational Excellence A Systematic Analysis of Material Flow in Battery Gigafactory Quality Control | |
| dc.type.degree | Examensarbete på grundnivå | sv |
| dc.type.uppsok | M | |
| local.programme | Ekonomi och produktionsteknik 180 hp (högskoleingenjör) |