Design for manufacturing (DFM) engineering is a crucial stage of your product development lifecycle. Without doing a DFM, your product/device will not be able to transition to the manufacturing lines, or at least transition easily. DFM engineering is a unique process that requires very skilled engineers.
Throughout the early stages of a product’s lifecycle, it is recommended that the product’s team keeps DFM engineering in their minds right from the start. As you’ll more than likely be scaling this device into the hundreds of thousands of units in the future.
Many founders and product teams overlook the DFM engineering phase and wind up confused and frustrated. We understand and have seen it before, whereby startup founders think the next logical step after prototyping is manufacturing. This is a complete misconception, and there are numerous more development steps a product must go through, including a DFM engineering step, in order for it to be manufacture-ready.
DFM Engineering, in some ways, is almost like a re-design of your current device/product. Or better yet, a device designed specifically in a way that allows your product to be manufactured at scale, whilst maintaining a high level of quality. Without going through a thorough DFM engineering phase, once your product begins being manufactured, the final product may have significant bugs or assembly flaws that can ruin your product.
In addition, during the DFM engineering, you’d be making a standard operating procedure (SOP). An SOP is a result of the DFM phase and is like a step-by-step guide for the factory workers to manufacture, assemble, and test your device. The rule of thumb for a good SOP, and a DFM for that matter, is making the design of your device simple enough to assemble your product so that a 5-year-old could do it. By making this process as simple as possible has great benefits.
Take into consideration, that firstly, it will more than likely be a factory worker assembling and testing your product. A factory worker will not be as educated, or specialized, as an engineer. Meaning, that you save cost, as you wouldn’t have engineers assembling your product, but rather factory workers.
In addition, this brings the cost down for your overall production cost as a DFM engineering can optimize your bill of materials (BOM) by removing/replacing irrelevant components. Just be decreasing your BOM by $1 – $2 USD can have a significant impact on your company in the future.
Not only does a reduction in the BOM cost assist your company, but also the speed at which your product can be manufactured. This plays a pivotal role in the production of your product. Without going through the DFM engineering process, you could be left unable to fulfill the quantity order your customer base expects.
Firstly, like any phase of your product’s development process, it will need to be analyzed to determine what stage your device is at. What SVV would usually do, is request to analyze your design files, Gerber files, bill of materials (BOM), and perhaps review a sample.
The engineering team will then assess the current design of the product, and give their feedback. In some cases, a small change, to say the PCBA, could require an entirely new product design change.
The product will then be put to a test, and go through a production simulation process (pilot-test), whereby a few hundred units will be made. This process is set out to measure the efficiency of the manufacturability of the product as well as the quality of the end result.
It is important to note, that before going through a later-stage DFM engineering process, you should’ve already applied for certification. With that in mind, if a design change is required, you’d need to re-apply for your certification.
This is why understanding your market before developing a product for it is a crucial stage, as each country will have a specific certification requirement to be eligible to be sold.
DFM engineering really is the beginning of the end. As it means your product is mature enough to begin getting ready for the manufacturing phase. Once your product is fully optimized and ready for production, you can begin steamrolling your new product out to your customers.
Efficiency has always been at the heart of manufacturing, and the DFM engineering phase is another key piece to the engineering puzzle. Without going through these crucial stages, it would be next to impossible that your product will ever enter the market.
Through a combination of expertise, refined design stages, and meticulous attention to detail, your product will smoothly transition from the engineering phase through to the market.
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