THE CHALLENGE

Ever heard a manufacturing engineer say "You want me to manufacture this design? You're not serious are you?"

Or maybe you've asked cost management "What will it cost to produce this? How can we reduce the cost without sacrificing quality?"

Or perhaps you are a management team member with a target cost in mind for a new or existing product, but are struggling to fathom what are the main contributors to the cost of the product.

Or you maybe a design engineer and you need to ensure your design is economically-manufacturable before it leaves your hands.

Design IV can help with each and all of these scenarios.

OUR APPROACH

Our background in product design and expertise in DFMA positions us perfectly to advise and support your application of DFMA.

Our team are knowledgeable and experienced product designers and engineers in their own right -each an invaluable and highly-skilled asset.

Learn more about Design IV.

Contact us to discuss your next project.

DFMA

As agents for Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc.'s (BDI) Design for Manufacture and Assembly or,DFMA® software for over 26 years, we are in an unrivalled position to ensure you achieve a rapid and effective deployment of the proven approach.

DFMA® software allows you to achieve cost reduction and quality improvement in an impressively short amount of time.

From the earliest conceptual stages of product development, to the purchase of parts from your supply chain, DFMA® provides a way to work creatively and objectively to find new avenues for improving profit margins.

Read BDI's Executive Whitepaper to find out "how to use DFMA® to slash manufacturing overhead, make products competitive, and bring new efficiencies to the manufacturing process."

Learn more about the DFMA software

DFM + DFA = DFMA

Product engineers generally know that up to 85 percent of manufacturing costs are determined in the early stages of design. When you make informed design decisions during the concept stage, you avoid costly corrections later on. Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) is a tried and tested approach to making such decisions at the earliest stages of product design.

Design for Assembly (DFA) is a methodology for evaluating part designs and the overall design of an assembly. It is a quantifiable way to identify unnecessary parts in an assembly and to determine assembly times and costs. Using DFA software, product engineers assess the cost contribution of each part and then simplify the product concept through part reduction strategies. These strategies involve incorporating as many features into one part as is economically feasible. The outcome of a DFA-based design is a more elegant product with fewer parts that is both functionally efficient and easy to assemble. The larger benefits of a DFA-based design are reduced part costs, improved quality and reliability, and shorter development cycles.

There are a vast number of process technologies and materials available today; and few design engineers possess detailed knowledge of all of the major shape-forming processes. As a result, engineers tend to design for processes with which they are most familiar. DFM software provides the means for engineers and teams to investigate alternative processes and materials, and to develop designs that may be more cost effective. It also means that with more information at their finger-tips about viable processes and materials, teams can quantify manufacturing costs for competing design alternatives and decide which design is best.

Used together, DFM and DFA software give engineers an early cost profile of product designs, providing a basis for planning and decision making. Such analysis, when performed at the earliest stages of concept design, has the potential to greatly influence manufacturing and other life cycle costs before they are locked in.

DFM SOFTWARE

The DFM software is a highly accurate estimator and is provided with its own 'turnkey' library of materials, machines, and operations. However, you can enter your own data or that of your suppliers, wherever they may be in the world giving you an incredibly powerful means to understanding your costs.

DFM software will help you shorten your product development cycles by working collaboratively on cost decisions. Because DFM is so easy to use, designers and manufacturing engineers can work closely with personnel from marketing, finance and purchasing, and from suppliers.

With its built-in libraries, DFM software can be used to evaluate supplier quotations, by comparing the information the software provides on such items as total cost, cycle time, machine size and die cost. DFM helps non-specialists, such as in discussions with supplier, by providing data on where the costs are being derived and what the costs should be.

It's built-in libraries also means DFM can be used to compare your designs with competitors’ products, to determine market feasibility and to target costs. DFM software adds advantage to companies seeking to enter competitive markets.

DFA SOFTWARE

DFA software estimates difficulty of assembly and with it, you can establish a rating for your product design in terms of its difficulty of assembly. The software rates each part according to how it is grasped, oriented and moved for insertion, and how it is inserted and/or fastened onto the product.

The DFA software provides you with objective, consensus-building information so your team can examine all the potential design solutions and select the most effective approach. You can easily incorporate product input from other groups, such as field service and marketing.

The DFA index, a measure of assembly efficiency, serves as a basis for quantitatively comparing design alternatives internally or against competing products. The index is an objective measure that is independent of product size or complexity. As you eliminate redundant parts or operations and remove assembly difficulties, assembly efficiency scores noticeably improve.

The software helps designers establish the theoretical minimum number of parts for a product. In the process, engineers identify design concepts that reduce unnecessary complexity and cost. This approach gives you an overall structure for making design changes in light of related material and manufacturing costs.