30 credits - Stress Effect on Workshop Technician Performance at Scania's workshops i Sodertalje

Scania is now undergoing a transformation from being a supplier of trucks, buses and engines to a supplier of complete and sustainable transport solutions.

Ingress:
Thesis project at Scania is an excellent way of making contacts for your future working life. Many of our current employees started their career with a thesis project.

Background:
The technology used in automotive industry, more specifically Scania has rapid growth over the past 100 years, which has emphasized the complexity of tasks and time for effective and efficient workshop activities. Researchers has shown that the internal reliability of humans has not improved noticeably over the same period. The main focus of the repair and maintenance action are on components level while the proportion of failures and downtimes contributed by human/technician error has necessarily not been touched.

Human factors affect the quality of the jobs performed by the workshop technicians, service advisors and even drivers. Since technician is the centre part of the workshop system, it is very important to understand how human body and mental process function and how performance limitations can influence a technician’s effectiveness at work.

Several factors can affect a maintenance technician’s performance. Vision, hearing, information processing, attention and perception, memory, time pressure, workload, fatigue, distraction, overconfidence, lack of communication and awareness etc. are among the physical and mental human performance characteristics which are likely to create stress and affect the quality of technician work, their judgement and decision making. There are different forms of stress that could be considered in this research, such as, fast-paced technology because changing always add stress to technicians. This demands that workshop technicians stay trained on the latest tools, equipment and technology. Other stressors include work related stress for example working in dark, tight spaces, lack of resources to get the repair done correctly, long hours, workload, prejudice, role in organization, career development, job insecurity, relationships at work with co-workers or subordinates, responsibilities and organizational structure and climate, etc.. Personal problems are inevitable stressors that should be considered in this study. Personal issues such as family problems, life-changing situations, emotional difficulties, illness, and even one’s sexual orientation can impact the job and ultimately ability of advancing the career. 

Target:
The overall goal of this research is to identify and prioritize the factors that affect human performance in inspection, repair and maintenance at Scania’s workshop. It is expected that these studies on human factors will create foundation for development work at Scania’s workshop and support technicians to get more understanding about themselves and handle stress effectively in different condition not only for more healthier work environment but also for gaining improved customer satisfaction which is key focus at Scania.

Assignment:
Identification of the workshop technician stress factors is in the first place and prioritization of those factors are the second task that should be done in this research. 

Number of students: 1 – 2
Start date: as agreed
Estimated time needed: 1 semester

Contact persons and supervisors:
Name: Farzaneh Ahmadzadeh, Funktion: Supervisor, 0700869105, Farzaneh.Ahmadzadeh@scania.com