Thursday, July 26, 2012

Design For Manufacture


Design for manufacturability is the general engineering art of designing products in such a way that they are easy to manufacture. In general terms the basic idea exists in almost all engineering disciplines, but of course the details differ widely depending on the chosen manufacturing technology. This design practice not only focuses on the design aspect of a part but also on the the designs opens ness to cost effective production.

The design stage is very important in product design. Most of the product lifecycle costs are committed at design stage. The product design is not just based on good design but it should be possible to produce by manufacturing as well. Often an otherwise good design is difficult or impossible to produce. Typically a design engineer will create a model or design and send it to manufacturing for review and invite feedback. This process is called as design review. If this process is not followed diligently, the product may fail at manufacturing stage.

If these design for manufacturability guidelines are not followed, it will result in iterative design, loss of manufacturing time and overall resulting in longer time to market. Hence many organizations have adopted concept of Design for Manufacturing.

Depending on various types of manufacturing processes there are set guidelines for Design for manufacturing practices. These guidelines help to precisely define various tolerances, rules and common manufacturing checks related to Design for manufacturing.

The team at Hamilton By Design have a unique combination of manufacturing experience along with extensive industrial /product design experience. For more information on or to find out whether your product design is suitable for manufacture contact www.hamiltonbydesign.com.au