Design for Manufacturing and Assembly
Design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA) has become an integral part of our design process to the point where we don’t even have to think about it as something that we have to consider or do. We design for manufacturing as a force of habit.
In addition, our team has in-depth experience with all high-volume manufacturing processes. We know the capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, and cost implications for each, and we can apply engineering economics and new present value financial methods to determine the most cost effective process.
We understand that a product must be designed so that it is easy to assemble correctly, economical to mass produce, and optimized in terms of the total cost.
Vendor Sourcing and Selection
Our team frequently assists clients with vendor sourcing and selection for components (parts), subassemblies, and complete products. Oftentimes, our customers have a list of preferred vendors they want to use for a given part or product. Other times, a component may use a new manufacturing process, a certain motor needs to be sourced from a new vendor, or a full product needs to be made at lower cost than available at our customers’ existing vendors.
Over the past several years, our team has developed and refined our vendor sourcing processes to help clients to efficiently find a suitable fit for a given program. We begin by studying the requirements including the likely processes, materials, costs, quality level, amount of assembly and automation, technology, and options for manufacturing locations.
An initial list of candidate vendors is assembled and screened. Leading candidates are visited and audited, and costs quotations are reviewed in detail. Decision factors are weighted, and the risks and benefits for each candidate are assessed. Final decisions are made in collaboration with our clients.
Cost Reduction
The cost reduction of components, subassemblies, and complete products is typically an ongoing process both during new product development programs and after market launch. Our team has worked on a variety of cost reduction projects over the past 30 years, including the following:
- part redesigns using lower cost manufacturing processes and materials
- part consolidations by combining multiple parts into one new part
- major platform consolidations – reducing the number of platforms and parts in inventory by using a common frame or major subsystem
- major product redesigns using DFMA (design for manufacturing and assembly) techniques
- commonizing parts and hardware across entire product lines – a standard DFMA practice
- packaging efficiency projects including the design of products and cartons to optimize containers packing
- sourcing parts, tooling, subassemblies, or complete products from lower cost sources
Underlying all cost reduction efforts is the practical use of proper financial analysis methods to ensure that payback and “make versus buy” justification figures are accurate.
Production Launch Support
Our team of engineers and designers can assist clients with all those final details that need to be addressed during the production launch phase. Production documentation needs to be in order, quality systems need to be put into place, and assembly methods need to be refined and error-proof.
The staff at Design Integrity has helped our clients to successfully launch hundreds of new products, and our wealth of experience during the production launch stage adds tremendous value for our clients.
Contact Us Today
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