Product Design. Understanding Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA)

Product Design
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The business environment has become quite hostile and competitive and has forced organizations keen on success characterized by increased revenue and profits to embrace customer-centric strategies and initiatives. There are several product design techniques and philosophies that businesses have been using over the years including industrial design and design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA). In the current dynamics it has become imperative for firms to identify which between the two is more important in a customer-focused product development.
Understanding Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA)
Design for manufacture and assembly is a product design philosophy that is inclined on making the process less complicated. DFMA also purposes to make the products easier to manufacture. According to Appleton (2008), “Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) is an engineering methodology that focuses on reducing time-to-market and total production costs by prioritizing both the ease of manufacture for the product’s parts and the simplified assembly of those parts into the final product – all during the early design phases of the product lifecycle”. The logic behind DMFA is that through the simplification of product design, the manufacturing and assembling not only becomes more efficient but the products are also produced within the shortest time possible and at a lower cost. DFMA has conventionally been employed in the automotive industry because of its focus on the production of high quality products. It has also been used in the design of consumer products for the same reason. DFMA applies several principles including the minimization of components being used in order to reduce both the assembly and ordering costs (Appleton, 2008). DFMA also eliminates unnecessary features on product design and simplifies the geometry to ease part-fabrication. It has been embraced as a product design philosophy because of the following benefits. DFMA provides a fast solution particularly in scenarios where products have to be designed as quickly as possible. DFMA lowers the cost ...