DFMA or Design for Manufacture and Assembly is a guide to simplifying product structure, reducing manufacturing and assembly costs and quantifying improvements. If implemented correctly DFMA can be used to identify, quantify and eliminate inefficiency in a design.
Historically in “over the wall” design issues regarding manufacturing and assembly were not discovered until being passed over the wall to the relevant departments. This lead to an increase in costs due to redesign, complicated tooling and inefficient assembly sequences.
DFMA is ideally suited for the early development stages of a product, however, implementation of the method is valid at any stage of a product’s life cycle if it is used to reduce costs.
DFMA is split into two categories, Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Manufacture (DFM), both complementing each other to form the DFMA methodologies described by Boothroyd and Lucas.
Projects:
- Retractable pen redesign using DFMA
- Electronic coin sorter redesign using DFMA
- Dimensional Management (DM) of product to improve quality
- The potential role of DFMA in the product development process
- Benefits of Dimensional Management within the Product Development Process
Jason Scupham 