ACTIONS AND OUTCOMES OF SUCCESSFUL

MANUFACTURING DESIGN BY 21MME-04

Design for Manufacturing (DFM) is the process of designing parts,
components or products for ease of manufacturing with an end goal of making
a better product at a lower cost. This is done by simplifying, optimizing and
refining the product design. The acronym DFMA (Design for Manufacturing
and Assembly) is sometimes used interchangeably with DFM. Ideally, DFM
needs to occur early in the design process, well before tooling has begun. In
addition, properly-executed DFM needs to include all the stakeholders —
engineers, designers, contract manufacturer, mold builder and material
supplier. The intent of this “cross-functional” DFM is to challenge the design — to
look at the design at all levels: component, sub-system, system, and holistic levels — to
ensure the design is optimized and does not have unnecessary cost embedded in it.

Five main action/principles are examined during a DFM. They are:

1. Process
2. Design
3. Material
4. Environment
5. Compliance/Testing

1 | PROCESS

The manufacturing process chosen must be the correct one for the part or
product. DFM took into consideration the quantity of parts being made, the
material being used, the complexity of the surfaces, the tolerances required
and whether there were secondary processes required.

2 | DESIGN

Design is essential. The actual drawing of the part or product has to conform
to good manufacturing principles for the manufacturing process you’ve chosen.
Spec the loosest tolerances that allow a good product - and consult the trade
organization for your manufacturing process on what is reasonable for that
process who can ensure that your design conforms to good manufacturing
principles for the selected process.

3 | MATERIAL
It's important to select the correct material for your part/product. Some
material properties to consider during DFM include:

 Mechanical properties - How strong does the material need to be?

 Optical properties - Does the material to be reflective or transparent?
 Thermal properties - How heat resistant does it need to be?
 Color - What color does the part need to be?
 Electrical properties - Does the material need to act as a dielectric (act
as an insulator rather than a conductor)?
 Flammability - How flame/burn resistant does the material need to be?

Material is also based on the planned use of the product and it's function.
Consider:

 How should it feel? Hard? Soft?

 Does it need to withstand pressure?
 Will your part or product need to conduct heat, electricity?

4 | ENVIRONMENT

Your part/product must be designed to withstand the environment it will be

subjected to. All the form in the world won’t matter if the part can’t function
properly under its normal operating conditions:
5 | COMPLIANCE/TESTING

All products must comply with safety and quality standards. Sometimes these
are industry standards, others are third-party standards and some are internal,
company-specific standards.

Here are the 10 successful outcomes of these actions which were applied
during manufacturing design.

10 OUTCOMES OF AN EFFECTIVE DFM

10 generally accepted Design for Manufacturing principles that were
developed to help designers decrease the cost of and complexity of
manufacturing a product. The results of a successful DFM are quantifiable in a
host of ways.

1. Minimize the number of product parts. Limiting the number of parts in

your product is an easy way to lower the cost of a product. Why?
 Because it automatically reduces the amount of material and assembly
labor required. Reducing the number of parts also means less
engineering, production, labor and shipping costs.

2. Use standardized parts wherever possible. Customization is not only

expensive, it’s time consuming. Standardized parts are already made to
meet the same quality metrics, every time. They are already tooled. So
you save costs and you won’t have to wonder whether they’ll pass
inspection.

3. Create a modular design. Using modules can simplify any future

product redesign, and also allows for use of standard components and
the re-use of modules in other projects.

4. Design multi-functional parts. This seems rather obvious, but it’s a

simple way to reduce the total number of parts: design parts with more
than one function.

5. Design multi-use products. Building on the point above,

different products can share parts that have been designed for multi-use.
Can your product use standardized parts that can are used in multiple
products?

6. Design for ease of fabrication. Choose the ideal combination between

the material and manufacturing process that will minimize production
costs. Ridiculously tight tolerances are a no-no. [More about that below.]
Avoid expensive and labor extensive final operations as painting,
polishing and finish machining.

7. Design your product to join without using screws, fasteners or

adhesives. Is it possible for your product to interlock or clip together?
Screws add only about 5% to the material cost, but 75% to the
assembly labor. Remember: if fasteners are required, try to keep the
size, number and type to a minimum and use standard fasteners
whenever possible.

8. Design your part to minimize handling, especially during

production and assembly. Handling includes positioning, orienting and
fastening the part into place. For orientation purposes, use symmetrical
parts wherever possible.
 9. Minimize assembly direction. If possible, your parts should assemble
from one direction. Ideally, parts should be added from above, parallel
to the gravitational direction (AKA downward.) This way assembly is
facilitated by gravity rather than fought by it.

10. Design your part to maximize compliance. Rely on built-in design

features like tapers or chamfers, or moderate radius sizes to guide
insertion of equipment and to protect the part from damage.

It’s been said that about 70 percent of manufacturing costs of a product — the
cost of materials, processing and assembly — are determined by design
decisions. If that’s the case, then you want to make sure you are adhering to
the best design practices possible.