DECEMBER 20209MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSA mature and well-implemented DFM "culture" will provide many advantages to the company such as launching in the right time in the market, competitive manufacturing cost (reducing the number of operations, selecting economical processes, reducing scrap, reducing process variation, minimizing waste material, increasing throughput, and reducing cycle times). Meanwhile, DFM's also enables the implementation of robust quality assurance systems, optimizing parts-count-number, reducing purchase and manufacturing inventories, and decreasing the number of manual assemblies that allow a safe work environment for the labor force. The advantages described above will contribute directly to the bottom-line at the P&L of any company that wants to proclaim that it is holding a world-class production system. There is no "one size fits all" or a single approach for DFM within the industries. Volume, end-item costing, competitive business environment, industry, end-item complexity, and product scoping are just a few variables that may change the formula for an organization's DFM utilization. DFM is also about business culture and practices; designing the perfect part and assembly process is an ultimate goal, however, a poorly designed manufacturing business environment that fails to execute optimally can be much more costly. DFM is usually more effective in high volume applications, although low volume high end-items can also benefit. The companies must take into consideration all design activities and should minimize or eliminate as many individual parts as possible in order to optimize the supply chain, consolidating cost-effective sourced suppliers and reducing the engineering cost. Product design should be "the first" manufacturing step in consideration when a cost reduction strategy comes into picture.. Ideally, DFM needs to occur early in the design process, which is well before tooling has begun. Proper execution of DFM needs to include all the stakeholders: design engineers, manufacturing, toolmakers, quality, service, marketing, and supply base.The intent of this "cross-functional" DFM is to challenge the designers 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 within. As the design progresses through the product life cycle, changes become more expensive, as well as more difficult to implement. Early DFM allows design changes to be executed quickly, in the least expensive manner. As long the companies adopt proper DFM strategies with the right disciplines in place across all the product development milestones, their competitiveness will better their position in the market with an organic cost structure and sustainable profit growth path.
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