Design of an Automated Wiring Harness Manufacturing Machine Product development and impact assessment of a novel manufacturing system

Sammanfattning

The increasing smartification of vehicles, including heavy vehicles like trucks leadsto greater demands and higher complexity when it comes to the vehicle’s nervesystem; electrical wiring. Supplying low-voltage and signals, wiring harnesses experiencehigh variation due to the practically endless truck configurations. This,combined with a high level of manual manufacturing makes wiring harnesses amongthe most expensive components of a truck.Current manual manufacturing methods were found to be costly both operationallyand during product changes. Addressing this, previous attempts at automation ofharness manufacturing have either not proceeded past the patenting stage, or notincluded manufacturing of chassis harnesses, that require additional operations likeadding of protections. This thesis examines relevant literature and seeks to developan automated manufacturing solution from the ground-up, supported both by establishedproduct development methods like functional decomposition tree, morphologicalmatrix, elimination matrix, and Pugh matrix, and practical test-design-buildcycles with an emphasis on early testing with rapid prototyping.The development process resulted in a modular and expandable manufacturing systemcapable of manufacturing selected signal harnesses. In addition, the thesis exploreswhat impact the widespread implementation of the automated solution wouldhave on the wider manufacturing process, wiring engineering, ethical areas, and onthe economics of the company were such a system is implemented. The findings arediscussed and recommendations for automation are presented, including componentstandardisation, design for automation, and technology leadership.