Improving ergonomics during door installations

Sammanfattning

This master thesis was conducted in collaboration with ASSA ABLOY Entrance Systems. The aim was to find solutions for increasing the efficiency of the installation of their SL500 sliding door. With no given problem within the installation process, or specific part to focus on, the project evolved as more insights were gained into the installation process. As different problems emerged the project shifted to from efficiency to instead explore how to increase the ergonomic possibilities for the installers during the installation process. The project follows the UK Design Council’s Double Diamond design methodology, while also implementing some of the guidelines from their “Expanded Framework for Innovation”. The methods used to gather information about the installation process and find problem areas were shadowing and interviews. The data gathered was processed using a thematic analysis which found several problem areas which could be further explored. In coordination with the ASSA ABLOY supervisors the problem area we focused on became installation ergonomics. To find possible solutions multiple brainstorming sessions took place that generated concepts and ideas for ways to approach the issue. By using competitive benchmarking inspiration could be gathered for some of the concepts and doing more rounds of brainstorming combined with screening matrixes helped define the concepts even further. In the end we had three final concepts to evaluate, two of which were developed by us and one concept which was a consumer product. The evaluation gave different results, indicating one of the concepts as a promising solution to the issue by changing the design of the SL500 to better allow good ergonomic positions. The other two concepts, while possibly helpful, proved difficult to have the installation technicians integrate in their process.