Design for manufacturability (DFM) is considered the most universal DFx methodology for the development of new products. The main reason is that DFM has direct implications on the costs derived from manufacturing the product.
Of course, the manufacturing costs have a close and direct relationship with the financial success of the new product, together with the quality of such product.
That said, we can also define the design for manufacturability as the method focused on reducing the costs without sacrificing the quality of the product. This is achieved by integrating different aspects during the new product development process.
But, what does it take to make sure that the DFM is applied successfully?
First of all, it is necessary to have access to different types of information, such as:
As you can see, to obtain the information mentioned before, it is necessary to have a product development team integrated by a multidisciplinary group of people, including individuals from different areas, for example:
From the integration of these individuals, and based on the vision, values and final objectives of the company regarding the new product being developed, some design principles and guidelines are to be considered on the design for manufacturability. Here are some examples:
Of course, there will be more possible factors that will define the focus of the DFM, but in general terms, all of them have the same end reducing costs while keeping the quality, depending on how the DFM decisions will impact the entire organization.
To better understand this, here's a step by step example of the entire process:
This is a general overview of the process. If you want to learn the details of how to actually implement DFM during the design process, the best way is to learn directly from professionals.