International Journal of Operations & Production Management: Volume 24 Issue 8

Some considerations relating to the reintroduction of assembly lines in the Swedish automotive industry

Dan Jonsson, Lars Medbo, Tomas Engström

In recent years, assembly lines have been reintroduced in the Swedish automotive industry and, in many cases, have replaced those so‐called alternative assembly systems which had…

The sustainability of teamwork under changing circumstances: The case of Volvo‐Ghent

Geert Van Hootegem, Rik Huys, Anne Delarue

Volvo's car assembly plant in Ghent, Belgium, is currently experiencing turbulent times. The plant is implementing the biggest expansion in its history, with plans to almost…

The birth of the individualised team: The individual and collective in a team based production organisation at the Volvo Bus Plant

Margareta Oudhuis

The Volvo Bus Plant at Borås, Sweden, is one of the largest bus‐chassis assembly plants in the world. Some years ago a new organization model, FLiSa, was implemented as an attempt…

Innovation and hybridization: Managing the introduction of lean production into Volvo do Brazil

Terry Wallace

Although the influential group located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have argued that “teamwork” is at the heart of the lean factory; more recent works have…

Reconstructing the history of the main Volvo Tuve plant: Some general trends, reasons and consequences for different assembly system designs

Tomas Engström, Bo Blomquist, Ove Holmström

This paper reports on the history of the main Volvo Tuve truck plant in Gothenburg from its beginnings in 1981 until 2002. It focuses on the assembly work involved in the…

Design or development? Beyond the LP‐STS debate; inputs from a Volvo truck case

Ben S. Kuipers, Marco C. De Witte, Ad H. van der Zwaan

In this paper, we will show that the debate between advocates of lean production and the socio‐technical approach has concentrated too much on the design aspect of the production…