Module 3

Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA)

DFMA is the combination of two methodologies; Design for Manufacture, which means the design
for ease of manufacture of the parts that will form a product, and Design for Assembly, which means
the design of the product for ease of assembly. The practice of applying DFMA is to identify, quantify
and eliminate waste or inefficiency in a product design.

The concept of DFM (Design for Manufacture) is not new, it dates back as early as 1788 when
LeBlanc, a Frenchman, devised the concept of inter-changeable parts in the manufacture of muskets
which previously were individually handmade. DFM is the practice of designing products keeping
manufacturing in mind. “Design for manufacture” means the design for ease of manufacture for the
collection of parts that will form the product after assembly. Similarly DFA is called Design for
Assembly. DFA is the practice of designing product with assembly in mind. “Design for assembly”
means the design of the product for ease of assembly. So design for Manufacture and assembly is
the combination of DFM and DFA as shown in Figure.

History of DFMA

1. Eli Whitney is an inventor from America used some DFM techniques in earlier times before the
term DFM came in to existence. Whitney incorporated the concept of interchangeable parts for
manufacturing musket for U.S. government. Prior to this innovation, each craftsman was responsible
to manufacture the complete product by using saw and files to shape each part and fit them
together.

2. Henry Ford an American industrialist was renowned for his advanced and extensive use of
assembly lines. The manual assembly operation was broken down into small chunks of repetitive
work that could be carried out at high efficiency. Ford in his book “My Life and Work” described
about the successful model T car that includes simplicity in operation, absolute reliability and high
quality in materials that used in that model. The concept used at that time by Ford is now referred as
DFM.

3. General Electric used value analysis techniques in the late 1940s. With the help of value analysis
techniques, it is possible to find the cost of a product and obtaining the design alternatives for the
product at the lowest cost. The philosophical approach of value analysis is through questioning and
comparing the value and cost of each features and each element of a product design.
4. The book “Metal Engineering Processes” edited by Roger W. Boltz is one of the books from a
series of handbook published by ASME in 1941. This book provides a series of guidelines to
designer in enhancing the manufacturability of metal components made with a number of
manufacturing processes such as casting, forging, extrusion, machining, joining, finishing etc.
Though Boltz used the word DFM, he is the first person arrange and plan DFM methodology.

5. In the year 1960, people started to use the terms producibility and manufacturability and about
1985, design for manufacturability and its short form DFM were widely used.

6. Geoffrey Boothroyd and A.H. Redford studied automatic assembly and provided various design
guidelines to make the assembly process easier.

7. In the recent years various trade association and vendors of parts are issuing booklets to the
product designers providing a series of guidelines and tolerance and materials recommendations for
parts. These kinds of publications have provided valuable and authorative assistance to product
designers.

Steps for applying DFMA during product design

The following steps are followed when DFMA used in the design process.

 DFA analysis lading to simplification of the product structure

 Early cost estimation of parts for both original design and modified design
 Selecting best material and process to be used
 After final selection of material and process carry out a thorough analysis of DFM
Advantages of applying DFMA during product Design

Today products are

– Tending to becoming more complex

– Made/required in increasingly large number

– Intended to satisfy a wide variation in user population

– Required to compete aggressively with similar products

– Required to consistently high quality

Through DFMA it is possible to produce competitively priced, high performance product at a minimal
cost. The advantages of applying DFMA during product design are as follows:

• DFMA not only reduces the manufacturing cost of the product but it helps to reduce the time to
market and quality of the product.

• DFMA provides a systematic procedure for analyzing a proposed design from the point of view of
assembly and manufacture.

• Any reduction in the number of parts reduces the cost as well as the inventory.

• DFMA tools encouraged the dialogue between the designer and manufacturing engineer during the
early stages of design.

Reasons for not implementing DFMA

1. No time: Designers are constrained to minimize their “design to manufacture time” for a new
product.

2. Not invented here: Very often designers provide enough resistance to adopt new techniques.

3. The ugly baby syndrome: Designer ego crashes if there is some suggestion for design change.

4. Low assembly cost: Since assembly cost of a particular product is less as compared to the total
material and manufacturing cost, DFA analysis is not required.

5. Low volume: Often it is expressed that DFMA is applicable for large quantity production.

6. Database doesn't apply to our product: Since DFMA is applied at the early stages of design before
the detail design has taken place; there is a need for a generalized database.

7. We have been doing it for years: Sometimes industry uses the design for producibility concept to
fine-tune the design. There is a misconception that they are doing the similar practice of DFMA.

8. It is only value analysis: The objective of DFMA and value analysis are same, however DFMA is
used at the early stages of design and can be used in every stages of design.

9. DFMA is only one among many techniques.

10. DFMA leads to products that are more difficult to service.

11. Prefer design rules: Sometimes design rules guide the designer in the wrong direction.

12. Refuse to use DFMA: Individual doesn't have the incentive to adopt the new technology and use
the tools available.
Designs for Maintainability

Maintainability is the degree to which a product allows safe, quick and easy replacement of its
component parts. It is embodied in the design of the product. A lack of maintainability will be evident
as high product maintenance costs, long out-of service times, and possible injuries to maintenance
engineers. One measure of maintainability is Time to Repair.

Two kinds of maintenance activity can be identified for any product:

Preventive maintenance (PM) is "a routine for periodically inspecting" with the goal of "noticing
small problems and fixing them before major ones develop." Ideally, "nothing breaks down."

Corrective maintenance is a type of maintenance used for equipment after equipment break down
or malfunction is often most expensive – not only can worn equipment damage other parts and
cause multiple damage, but consequential repair and replacement costs and loss of revenues due to
down time during overhaul can be significant.

Modularity and Lines of Repair:

A further consideration is where the components are to be replaced. This could be at the point of use
(1st line maintenance), at a repair depot (2nd line maintenance), or at the point of manufacture (3rd
line maintenance).

General Rules - Design for Maintainability:

The rules are largely common sense. Put yourself in the place of the maintenance engineer, and try
to design out any obstacles to easy maintenance:

• Maintainability is created during the design process. It cannot be added later.

• Establish the maintenance philosophy in terms of ‘repair versus disposal’ of the product or
components. Do this before starting any design work.

• Consider where maintenance will take place (1st. 2nd or 3rd line).

• Consult the maintenance engineer during the design phase and agree upon a set of documents to
be handed over to the maintenance people.

• Keep it simple. Complex arrangements are usually harder to maintain.

• Make it testable. Reactive (fault finding) tests often reveal latent problems that will become faults in
the near future. Include diagnostic test points in electrical circuits. Include mechanisms that provide
early warning of impending failure.

• Design reliability into items that are difficult to maintain (such as components deep within an
engine), to reduce the need for maintenance access.

• Reduce maintenance frequency overall by ruggedizing and over-specifying components to

withstand occasional overload.
• Provide warning labels where a maintenance engineer may be exposed to danger. For example on
hot or heavy items or where there is stored mechanical or electrical energy.

• Provide maintenance instructions and information panels if the routine is difficult to remember, and
fix them as close to the point of maintenance as possible.

• Design equipment to fail-safe so that risk of injury to maintenance engineers is reduced.

• Avoid the requirement for special tools.

Here are 8 factors to consider when designing a system that will require maintenance.

1. Standardization

Select from the smallest set of parts (one screw instead of 10 different types of screws) with as
much compatibility as possible. Minimize spare parts inventory is just one benefit.

Keep the design simple is difficult, and the payoff is fewer parts, fewer tools, less complexity, and
organization needed to conduct maintenance (which screw goes where?).

2. Modularization

Create a set of standard sizes, shapes, modular units. Lego bricks come to mind.

If we expect to different models with different features, using a standard structure allows the
interchange of compatible parts to alter functionally without changing the majority of the product. A
good example is light bulbs. You can select the functional bulbs (brightness, intensity, color, etc.)
and they will fit in the same socket.

3. Functional packaging

Gather all the required elements to complete a maintenance task in one kit. If I need washers, O-
rings, and pumper’s grease to complete a faucet repair, having all the items in one package helps
me complete the task quickly (without the need to run to the store to pick up the forgotten item.)

4. Interchangeability

If you have to create a custom fit for a part, consider the ramifications. Single source, lack of
compatibility with other similar functioning parts, another spare part in inventory, and limitations on
future design changes if you want to stay in that custom form factor.

Select parts that are useful for a range of products or applications. Manage and control the
dimensional and functional design tolerances.

5. Accessibility

Bruised knuckles are one risk of getting this wrong.

If an item requires replacement or adjustment as part of the expected maintenance, then it should
permit access. Consider tools, lighting, environment, and experience of a maintenance crew.
Providing access panels is one factor, safety another.

6. Malfunction annunciation

A key step in performing maintenance is to know what caused the problem or which parts are
damaged and require replacement.

A bicycle flat tire is obvious to visual inspection or you may notice a change in the sound and feel of
the ride. On complex systems which circuit board requires replacement may not be obvious?
Minimizing the need for inspection tools and diagnostic tasks minimizes the time/cost of the
corrective maintenance tasks. Let the system inform the technician what requires attention.

7. Fault isolation

There are two parts to this factor. One, make the system as informative as possible such that it not
only signals a failure mode, it also narrows down the possible failure mechanisms. Replacing a
blown fuse doesn’t fix the problem and just finding the problem may take significant time.

Second, a failure in one part of a system can cause failure of other elements in the system.

When possible, contain the damage to minimize the amount of damage caused by a failure of one
item.

8. Identification

Name the parts with unique identifiers. This streamlines documentation, procedures, and
maintenance tasks.

Be consistent and provide meaningful or memorable naming conventions to avoid confusion.

Summary

There are always the considerations of time, complexity, cost and functionality, in a design.
Considering these factors during the design process provides a meaningful basis to balance the
needs of maintenance as we attempt to restore a system to service.

The cost of ownership is a function of main tenability and during the design process, you have the
ability to minimize the number of bruised knuckles that occur.
Design for the Environment

Design for the Environment (DfE) is a design approach to reduce the overall human health and
environmental impact of a product, process or service, where impacts are considered across its life
cycle. Different software tools have been developed to assist designers in finding optimized products
or processes/services.

Initial guidelines for a DfE approach were written in 1990 by East Meets West, a New York-based
non-governmental organization. It became a global movement targeting design initiatives and
incorporating environmental motives to improve product design in order to minimize health and
environmental impacts by incorporating it from design stage all the way to the manufacturing
process.

By incorporating eco-efficiency into design tactics, DfE takes into consideration the entire life-cycle
of the product, while still making products usable but minimizing resource use. The key focus of DfE
is to minimize the environmental-economic cost to consumers[4] while still focusing on the life-cycle
framework of the product. By balancing both customer needs as well as environmental and social
impacts DfE aims to "improve the product use experience both for consumers and producers, while
minimally impacting the environment".

Design for Environment practices

Four main concepts that fall under the DfE umbrella.

Design for environmental processing and manufacturing: This ensures that raw material
extraction (mining, drilling, etc.), processing (processing reusable materials, metal melting, etc.) and
manufacturing are done using materials and processes which are not dangerous to the environment
or the employees working on said processes. This includes the minimization of waste and hazardous
by-products, air pollution, energy expenditure and other factors.
Design for environmental packaging: This ensures that the materials used in packaging are
environmentally friendly, which can be achieved through the reuse of shipping products, elimination
of unnecessary paper and packaging products, efficient use of materials and space, use of recycled
and/or recyclable materials.

Design for disposal or reuse: The end-of-life of a product is very important, because some
products emit dangerous chemicals into the air, ground and water after they are disposed of in a
landfill. Planning for the reuse or refurbishing of a product will change the types of materials that
would be used, how they could later be disassembled and reused, and the environmental impacts
such materials have.

Design for energy efficiency: The design of products to reduce overall energy consumption
throughout the product's life.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is employed to forecast the impacts of different (production)
alternatives of the product in question, thus being able to choose the most environmentally friendly.
A life cycle analysis can serve as a tool when determining the environmental impact of a product or
process. Proper LCAs can help a designer compare several different products according to several
categories, such as energy use, toxicity, acidification, CO2 emissions, ozone depletion, resource
depletion and many others. By comparing different products, designers can make decisions about
which environmental hazard to focus on in order to make the product more environmentally friendly.

Why do firms want to design for the environment?

Modern day businesses all aim to produce goods at a low cost while maintaining quality, staying
competitive in the global marketplace, and meeting consumer preferences for more environment
friendly products. To help businesses meet these challenges, EPA encourages businesses to
incorporate environmental considerations into the design process. The benefits of incorporating DfE
include: cost savings, reduced business and environmental risks, expanded business and market
opportunities, and to meet environmental regulations.

How does a business design for the environment?

A business can design for the environment by:

 Evaluating the human health and environmental impacts of its processes and products.
 Identifying what information is needed to make human health and environment decisions
 Conducting an assessment of alternatives
 Considering cross-media impacts and the benefits of substituting chemicals
 Reducing the use and release of toxic chemicals through the innovation of cleaner
technologies that use safer chemicals.
 Implementing pollution prevention, energy efficiency, and other resource conservation
measures.
 Making products that can be reused and recycled
 Monitoring the environmental impacts and costs associated with each product or process
 Recognizing that although change can be rapid, in many cases a cycle of evaluation and
continuous improvement is needed.
Product Costing

Product cost refers to the costs incurred to create a product. These costs include direct labor, direct
materials, consumable production supplies, and factory overhead. Product cost can also be
considered the cost of the labor required to deliver a service to a customer. In the latter case,
product cost should include all costs related to a service, such as compensation, payroll taxes, and
employee benefits.

The cost of a product on a unit basis is typically derived by compiling the costs associated with a
batch of units that were produced as a group, and dividing by the number of units manufactured. The
calculation is:

(Total direct labor + Total direct materials + Consumable supplies + Total allocated overhead) ÷
Total number of units = Product unit cost

Ethics in Product Design

Last year, a video posted to Twitter captured two Facebook employees using a soap dispenser in an
employee bathroom. The white employee places his hand under the dispenser and receives soap
without incident. But when the black employee holds his hand under the dispenser, nothing
happens. The sensor cannot recognize his hand.

It was a small example of a problem that plagues the design industry. “If you have ever had a
problem grasping the importance of diversity in tech and its impact on society, watch this video,”
wrote Chukwuemeka Afigbo, who published it. Afigbo’s interaction with the soap dispenser
demonstrates a failure in its design. It’s hard to imagine the same outcome would have occurred if
the dispenser’s design team had tested the product with black users, or if the design team consisted
of racially diverse employees.

Examples of product design that fail on the ethics front are all too easy to find—like news feeds
promoting fake news, ride-hailing companies psychologically exploiting workers, and virtual home
assistants perpetuating negative gender stereotypes. It’s not that product designers don’t care about
the ethical ramifications of their work—far from it. It’s that, too often, they assume that such
considerations fall outside of their job description.

Ethical puzzles at the engineering stage can take many forms: An engineer is asked to draw up a
permit for a building that might not meet environmental standards; a software engineer is pressured
to rush a product that he knows is not bug-free; a decision to use cheaper materials makes for an
unstable product; an engineer fears that a subcontractor’s poor work could endanger a project’s
success.

The general principles of ethics for engineers call for such measures as making public safety and
welfare paramount, resisting scenarios of fraud and corruption and working only in areas in which
they are competent.
Legal Factors and Social Issues

Developing a useful new product is one of the toughest undertakings you can begin. Along the way
you're going to run into naysayers and different problems that pop up out of nowhere. But
perseverance usually pays off, and if you keep working you may find that you've come through the
process with a product that is ready to manufacture. But you may also find that the problems along
the way involve legal issues that you wish you had considered. There's nothing worse than
developing a great new idea, and then spending time and money in a legal battle before you can do
anything with it.

Licensing

Licensing your product basically gives someone else the right to produce and sell your product for a
given period of time. So when you're developing your product, you should already be thinking about
whether or not you want to license it. The positive is that the business generally takes on the risk
associated with producing your product, and they also usually know what they're doing and can
achieve results. The downside is that you're ceding control of your product to another entity, and
you're losing control over your intellectual property.

Product Liability

By now you've surely heard of at least a couple of auto manufacturers recalling certain makes and
models due to defects. There are manufacturing defects, which you aren't in control of, and design
defects, which you most definitely are. You absolutely don't want to end up with a product that has a
dangerous design defect that may not initially be recognized. That's why it can be so beneficial to sit
down with experts and find out if there are any design flaws or defects in your product, before you
attempt to manufacture.

Patents

Patents are the best way to ensure that your invention is legally protected, should someone try to
copy your idea or challenge your ownership of it, but they aren't always worth it.

We are all part of one world and we do rely upon each other. Anything we can do to promote positive
work or play is good however as designers we also have a responsibility to make sure designs don't
have a negative impact. Products can really influence us as people and as designers we need to be
positive role models encouraging 'Social Harmony'. These can include:

- Healthy eating

- Family interaction

- Being inclusive with minority groups such as disabled people

In Design and Technology, social issues can arise when a new product has an unforeseen side-
effect on a group of people. This can be a good or a bad thing. For example, the rise in use of
mobile phones to send text messages has increased the demand for such phones. This:

● provides employment for factory workers.

● enables people to keep in touch more easily.

● means that there is less need for people to meet each other in person.

As a designer you have a moral responsibility to do the right thing. Moral issues is about being fair
and honest. You should be thinking about what is 'right' for the consumer. For example a moral
designer should be considering the safety of potential users as a high priority as well as making sure
they don't feel uncomfortable or come to any harm. People with strong morals are honest and decent
and will put other people before their own personal gain.