Concurrent Engineering:

Design For Manufacturability &

Assembly

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Design for manufacturability (DFM)

◼ The general engineering

art of designing products
in such a way that they
are easy to manufacture

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DFM Outcomes

◼ Cost:
 Reduced costs by making products easier to
produce
◼ Delivery:
 Reduced cycle times products easier to
produce
◼ Quality:
 Increased quality by making products easier to
produce

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Some Key DFMA Guidelines

◼ Understand
manufacturing
problems/issues of
current/past products

◼ Design for easy

fabrication,
processing, and
assembly

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Some DFM Guidelines
1. Reduce the number of parts
 to minimize the opportunity for a defective part, to decrease the total
cost of fabricating and to improve the chance to automate the process

2. Utilize common parts and materials

 to facilitate design activities, to minimize the amount of inventory in
the system

3. Design modular products

 to facilitate assembly with building block components and sub-
assemblies

4. Avoid tight tolerances

 beyond the natural capability of the manufacturing processes and
design in the middle of a part's tolerance range

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Some DFM Guidelines cont’d
5. Design for parts orientation and handling
 to minimize non-value-added manual effort, to avoid ambiguity in
orienting and merging parts, and to facilitate automation

6. Minimize tooling complexity

 by concurrently designing tooling.

7. Minimize Setups.
 For machined parts, ensure accuracy by designing parts and fixturing
so all key dimensions are all cut in the same setup (chucking).

8. Minimize Cutting Tools.

 For machined parts, minimize cost by designing parts to be machined
with the minimum number of cutting tools.

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Design for Assembly (DFA)

◼ Design for Assembly is a

process by which products
are designed with ease of
assembly in mind

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Goal of DFA

◼ Cost:
 Reducing number of components
◼ Delivery:
 Reducing assembly time
◼ Quality:
 Improving product quality

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Assembly methods - in manual assembly

◼ parts are transferred to workbenches where

workers manually assemble the product or
components of a product
◼ Hand tools are generally used to aid the workers
◼ Although this is the most flexible and adaptable
of assembly methods, there is usually an upper
limit to the production volume, and labour costs
(including benefits, cases of workers
compensation due to injury, overhead for
maintaining a clean, healthy environment, etc.)
are higher.

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Assembly methods - Fixed or hard automation

◼ is characterised by custom-built machiner that

assembles one and only one specific product
◼ Obviously, this type of machinery requires a large
capital investment
◼ As production volume increases, the fraction of
the capital investment compared to the total
manufacturing cost decreases

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Assembly - automation or robotic assembly

◼ incorporates the use of robotic assembly systems

◼ This can take the form of a single robot, or a
multi-station robotic assembly cell with all
activities simultaneously controlled and
coordinated by a PLC or computer
◼ Although this type of assembly method can also
have large capital costs, its flexbility often helps
offset the expense across many different
products.

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Potential effect of DFA

ISTN 12
General DFA Guidelines
1. Minimise part count by incorporating multiple
functions into single parts
2. Modularise multiple parts into single
subassemblies
3. Assemble in open space, not in confined spaces
4. Make parts such that it is easy to identify how
they should be oriented for insertion
5. Prefer self-locating parts
6. Standardise to reduce part variety
7. Maximise part symmetry

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General DFA Guidelines
8. Color code parts that are different but shaped
similarly
9. Provide alignment features
10. Insert new parts into an assembly from above
11. Eliminate re-orientation of both parts and
assemblies
12. Eliminate fasteners
13. Ensure sufficient space between fasteners and
other features for a fastening tool
14. Prefer easily handled parts

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Example of DFA checklist

◼ Minimize
 Parts & fixing
 Assembly movements
 Assembly directions
◼ Provide
 Simple handling
 Natural alignment
 Easy access
◼ Avoid
 Visual obstructions
 Simultaneous assembly operations
 Possibility of assembly errors

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Provide Assembly Drawing

◼ Shows exploded view of product

Head Neck

End
Cap
Handle

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Provide Assembly Chart

◼ Shows how product is assembled

Tuna Fish
Part1
1
Sub Assy
Tuna
SA1 A1
Assy
2 Sandwich
Final Product
Mayonaise
Part2
FG

Bread
Part3
3 A2

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Why is not DFMA used more?

◼ Poor knwoledge about the method

 Production engineers and designers have little
knowledge
◼ Management priorities
 Productperformance is priority compared to
low manufacturing & assembly cost
◼ Work overload
 No time to use another method

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DFMA Example:

◼ Improving design by reducing parts

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DFMA Example

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Source: dfmawhitepaper 26