Designing a painting rack for the custom painting of truck cab parts : Applying industrial design engineering in the improvement of an automotive industrial painting process

The automotive industry has shown an increasing reliability in customer adaptation, which places high demands on a flexible and efficient production process. Last year a new paint shop for the custom painting of cab articles was introduced to the Volvo Trucks plant in Tuve, Gothenburg, in hopes of reducing lead times, costs, and the dependency on external suppliers. Since its introduction, the paint shop has undergone continuous development aimed at increasing production volume, capacity, and customer satisfaction. During this process, the tools used for handling the cab articles during the process were identified as an area with significant potential for improvement. This master’s thesis explores how principles in industrial design engineering can be applied in the development of such a tool. The project has been structured through a detailed design process adapted to the specific project requirements and created through a combination of existing design theory and methodology. A comprehensive framework for stakeholder problems, needs, and design requirements has been developed to create an understanding of the current situation and to support concept development, evaluation, implementation, and future changes. Solutions have then been developed through various design methods to show how these requirements can be fulfilled through feature concepts. Lastly, these features have been further explored and integrated in the production of three final resulting models. These models have then been tested and evaluated through our framework along with our stakeholders to demonstrate their improvements and impact on the painting process.