Maybe you know what it is? Or maybe you think you know what it is? Regardless of your knowledge, your product will struggle when it comes to mass production. Let’s face it, this is where we want to see our company selling tens of thousands of units, and becoming a successful product. DFM (design for manufacturing) is a crucial step that needs to be carefully thought through.
How DFM is misunderstood?
Most startup teams would manage their product development by following these three steps:
Step 1. Build a quick prototype using off-the-shelf boards and parts.
Step 2. Finish the design work with an in-house or local engineering resource.
Step 3. Go to a contract manufacturer (CM) for a quick DFM process, followed by mass production.
In reality, most projects have problems at stage 3, and end up needing a redesign (costing more time and money). The reason is the misunderstanding of what DFM is and how it’s supposed to be handled. The DFM process should be considered from the beginning and throughout the development process rather than towards the end. If you’re designing for manufacturing throughout your product’s life-cycle then your product will have a smoother transition when entering mass production. Having an ignorant mindset will only increase the chances of delays, and potential failure of launching.
The general misunderstanding of a design flow:
The right design approach is, for every step of the above cycle, design engineers should always keep in mind, how to optimize the product’s design as to avoid a re-design later on.
Key elements to optimize your product’s design:
– Easy to assemble (design for manufacturing): production line workers are middle school graduates, assume they don’t have any technical knowledge. The design should be made in a way that enables them to assemble products, with minimum training. On the factory side, a straightforward criterion is, how many workers are needed (the less the better), and how many daily yields it has (the higher the better).
– BOM cost (design for cost optimization): COGS is pretty much determined by design, there is room for cost negotiations with part suppliers, but comparing them to the BOM design, the cost you’re saving from a supplier will be minimal.
– Lead time (design for supply-chain management): Just like the BOM cost, 80% is determined by the design. The top 15 components will impact your product’s lead time by 80%! This is due to sourcing and supplying.
– Robustness (design for quality): Design quality and parts quality are two top major root causes of product quality problems. Ensuring you’re using the right material that complements speed and quality of your product will enhance the overall yield.
You want your product to be high quality, and mass-produced in the tens of thousands of units. Then pay very close attention to your (DFM) process. Not everyone will know, or even understand how to manufacture your product. So we must simplify the design so that factories can produce high volumes whilst retaining high quality.
Written by: Frederick Bravey
CHINA:
