2

Product design as a
requirement for
economic assembly

Figure 2.1
Cost responsibility
cost origination
(Gairola)

The development of a product is characterized by the specified product

function. The production processes are largely dictated by the design of the
individual parts and the product assembly arrangement.
Figure 2.1 shows a correlation of cost responsibility and origination of the
principal company areas of Design, Parts Manufacture and Assembly in
accordance with Reference 4. It is clear that the Design Department only
accounts for 12 % of the manufacturing costs. However, it largely determines
the production processes by the selection of material, tolerances and
dimensions, etc. and is therefore responsible for 75 % of the manufacturing
costs. Since assembly is the most labour-intensive activity, particular
importance is attached to assembly-oriented product design. An assemblyoriented product design is not only the fundamental requirement for
automatic assembly, it also forms the basis for economic manual assembly. Its
principal objectives are shown in Figure 2.2. In addition to simplification and
the directly linked easier control of assembly processes, a higher repeat
frequency of assembly processes is also achieved in spite of smaller batch
sizes and a large number of product variants [5].
Cost origination
12 %

70 %

Design

Assembly

15 %

Parts
production

75%

3%

Others

13 %

6% 6%

Cost responsibility

Figure 2.2
Objectives of assemblyoriented product design
(Platos-Witte)

Assembly-oriented product design

Objectives

Minimization of assembly time and training time

with manual assembly
Implementation of the most simple and reliable
equipment used in automatic assembly
Economic assurance of product quality
Realization of a high repeat frequency of assembly
procedures in spite of production of a wide range of
product variants

Functions

Assembly-oriented product design

Standardization of components
Assembly-oriented design

2 Product design as a requirement for economic assembly

15

2.1
Product design

The degree of difficulty of assembly increases with the complexity of the

product. Products with a small number of parts are easier to design to be
assembly-oriented. As a general rule, resulting of the small number of parts or
assembly operations such products are finish-assembled at one assembly
point. On the other hand the assembly operations must be subdivided for
products with a larger number of parts. A condition for this is that a product
must be designed so that subassemblies can be pre-assembled.
Figure 2.3 shows schematically a subdivision into subassemblies from preassembly to final assembly corresponding to assembly progress.
The following rules should be observed for the assembly-oriented design of
subassemblies and final products.
The whole assembly operation must be subdivided into clearly discernible
stages by suitable subassembly formation.
A subassembly must be completed as a unit so that it can continue to be
handled and manipulated as a single part.
It must be possible to test a subassembly separately.
Every subassembly should have the minimum possible number of
connections to other subassemblies.
Variant-dependent subassemblies should not be included together with
variant-neutral subassemblies.
As far as possible, variant subassemblies should have an equal number of
installation conditions.
To comply with these rules, a so-called base part is of prime importance for
the individual subassemblies and the end product [5].

Figure 2.3
Assembly-oriented
product subdivision into
subassemblies

Product

Final
assembly

Production progress
in assembly

Subassemblies

Subassemblies

Subassemblies

Subassemblies

Subassemblies

Subassemblies

Pre-assembly

Parts production

Product complexity

16

2 Product design as a requirement for economic assembly

A base part is defined as the principal part (quite often the base plate or
housing) to which further parts are attached in the course of assembly. This
term is applicable to both subassemblies and end products. In the field of
electronics, a classic example of a base part is the printed circuit board on
which all other components are mounted.

2.1.1
Base part

In the assembly procedure, the base part need not be the first part to be
handled; it is rather the part on to which other parts are mounted. It should be
designed so that, by subdividing the assembly procedure, transfer from one
assembly point to another is possible without any special device. This
requirement cannot always be realized. However, with manual assembly in
particular, which functions without a workpiece fixture, it should be a specific
objective. With progressive assembly with circulating workpiece carriers or
automated assembly with workpiece fixtures, to some degree the workpiece
carrier or the assembly fixture can assume the function of the base part.
Base parts must be designed so that during assembly they are self-centring in
the workpiece fixture. The requirement for clamping and therefore the
provision of clamping faces on the part should be largely avoided, since
clamping workpiece fixtures are more complicated and expensive than
workpiece carriers without clamping equipment. With a subdivided assembly
operation, i.e. with transfer from one assembly point to another, workpiece
fixtures with clamping equipment represent a considerable financial outlay.

d
Figure 2.4
Centring of base parts:
(a) extemal centring;
(b) centring by a hole and slot

a
Base
part
b

With a subdivided assembly, and particularly with mechanized assembly

operations, the centring accuracy of the base part in the workpiece fixture is
important. Base plates or housings as base parts must be designed so that
with external centring their external tolerances (see Figure 2.4 a) must be
selected so that with regard to an automatic assembly procedure, the joint
points inside the base part can be positioned with adequate accuracy. If this
cannot be achieved by external centring, the base part must be equipped with
centring holes as shown in Figure 2.4 b. With regard to their tolerances in
relation to the function positions of the base part, the centring holes must be
dimensioned so that the function points of the base part can be operated and
manipulated via the centring holes. If the base part is located by centring pins,
to avoid static reversibility, one centring hole is to be circular (c) and the
second (d) in the form of a slot (see Figure 2.4 b), [2, 5].
Clamping workpiece carriers should function without an energy supply. As an
example, Figure 2.5 shows the clamping of a right-angular base part with two
reference faces a and b. Clamping is by a slide with an eccentric actuating
mechanism.

Workpiece
carrier
Figure 2.5
Clamping of a base part
in a workpiece carrier

2 Product design as a requirement for economic assembly

17

2.1.2
Number of parts

Minimization of the number of parts in a product is a highly important

objective for assembly-oriented product design. Every part avoided need not
be designed, progressed and assembled.
The use of modern materials and production methods facilitates the singlepiece design form of parts which previously had to be manufactured from
several parts. Figure 2.6 shows one such solution. Three parts manufactured
from standardized parts means handling and assembly costs for three parts.
The redesign of these three assembled parts in the form of a single part
produced as a special part does indeed incur additional tooling costs but
reduces the costs for handling and assembly to a single operation and is
therefore more economic overall [6].
In the field of precision engineering and electrical equipment production, the
use of high-performance plastics presents excellent design opportunities for
parts reduction.

Figure 2.6
Redesign of three parts reduced
to one part (Treer)

Figure 2.7 shows a further example. In the initial design of a pneumatic piston,
the assembly consisted of seven parts. The problem in assembly was the need
to hold the cover plate against the helical compression spring in order to fit
the screws. A design revision within the context of assembly-oriented product
form resulted in a cover design with an integral connection technique in the
form of a snap connection between the cover and housing and an alteration of
the piston to give location guidance of the helical compression spring. The
number of individual parts was reduced from seven to four, and the expensive
assembly operation insert screws was also saved.
Figure 2.8 shows an example of a parts reduction possibility on a complex
product. A switch element formed by 21 parts was difficult to assemble on
account of the product design. Chiefly, a large proportion of the parts are
unsuitable for automatic handling. A design revision along the lines for
assembly-oriented product design resulted in a reduction to 16 parts. The
proportion of parts which cannot be handled automatically was halved by the
design revision [7].

18

2 Product design as a requirement for economic assembly

Figure 2.7
Parts reduction
in initial design (a)
and new design (b)
(Boothroyd)

Screws (steel)
Cover plate (steel)

Cover plate,
clip-in fitting
(plastic)

Spring (steel)
Spring (steel)

Stop (nylon)
Plunger
(aluminium)

Plunger
(aluminium)

Body (plastic)

Body (plastic)

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.8
Parts reduction by assembly
oriented design
(Boothroyd)

Original
parts

2 Product design as a requirement for economic assembly

Assemblyoriented
parts

19