Spårning av kvalitetsfel på XC90 höger A-stolpe

Abstract

Volvo Cars AB is one of the most prominent automotive makers in the market. The presented bachelor thesis work has been carried out in Volvo Cars Torslanda A- factory, where the production mainly focuses on manufacturing the body of the car. The purpose of this project is to investigate missing pin studs attached on the front right A-pillar, for the car model XC90. The main concern has been that this pin stud loosens along the flow chain. The automotive maker has not been able to locate where this error occurs. The involving parts of this flow chain are Volvo Cars AB and the supplier Gestamp, who manufactures and delivers the A-pillars. The mission has been to identify where the pin studs disappear in the flow chain, identifying the cause of this error and to bring a suggestion of improvement to prevent similar errors in the future. To solve the given problem, an analysis of the flow chain was conducted. A process map was created to follow the A-pillar movement through the whole flow chain. A Gemba walk was later carried out to gather information and make own observations of how the pin stud might be exposed. Semi structured interviews with staff were undertaken to gather information and to make further analysis. Different test such as exposing a direct force against the pin stud was also conducted, primarily to observe the strength of the fastening of the pin stud. As Gestamp's facility is located in the United Kingdom, there was no opportunity to visit their facilities. Several inquiries were sent to Gestamp, regarding the possibility of conducting an interview with the quality manager. These inquiries were never answered, which meant that the possibility of reaching a complete conclusion was considerably more difficult. However, based on the completed analysis, it was possible to exclude all Volvo Cars' factories in Torslanda as a root cause to the missing pin studs. The authors proposed to carry out a similar study at the subcontractor, in order to be able to ensure with the greatest certainty where in the flow chain the error occurs. Suggestions for improvement were proposed to the client to identify the missing pin studs at an earlier stage.