Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) (MS263)

SynopsisThis Design for Manufacturability and Assembly workshop (DFMA), is a 2-day workshop that introduces the participants to the methods, techniques, guidelines and principles for designing products that are easy to manufacture, hence lower cost, high quality and reliability. The workshop deals with the design of piece parts as well as the design of subassemblies and complete products. The Boothroyd/Dunhurst Design for Assembly (DFA) methodology is an important part of the workshop.

The DFMA workshop focuses on the physical design of products. It covers the design of components in relation to the process of their manufacture, i.e. plastics, castings, sheet metal etc, and how their design affects their assembly into the finished product. Efficient application of DFMA results in parts that are lowest cost to manufacture and can be assembled with no defects and minimal cost.

If a product contains fewer parts it will take less time to assemble, thereby reducing assembly costs. If the parts are provided with features which make them easier to grasp, move, orient and insert, this will also reduce assembly time and assembly costs. The reduction of the number of parts in an assembly has the added benefit of reducing the total cost of parts in the assembly. The course teaches participants design guidelines for piece parts (DFM) and how to estimate assembly efficiencies (DFA) and gives numerous tips for minimizing cost by designing parts and assemblies that are easy to produce and put together.

The workshop promotes the inclusion of equipment capabilities, process variation, and raw material variation considerations during design, resulting in products with higher yields, less processing time and reduced secondary operations at both the component as well as the assembled product level. The major benefit of improved manufacturability is reduced product costs. A secondary benefit is the ability to easily increase production. DFMA leads to sets of design guidelines that anticipate and address production problems during the design stage.

What You Will Learn

• design rules for various manufacturing materials/processes
• design products at the lowest possible cost through piece part reduction and efficient part design
• understand and perform Boothroyd/Dunhurst Assembly Efficiency Analysis
• design for assembly guidelines, methods and design idiot-proofing
• basics of dimensioning and tolerancing

Who Should AttendThe workshop is appropriate for all mechanical design and development engineers, Industrial designers, manufacturing engineers, project leaders, project managers, sourcing engineers and operations managers.

PrerequisiteTechnical degree and involvement in any part of product design and development, sourcing, and manufacturing.

Course MethodologyPresentation, case studies & group discussion for exposure to real life issues and team exercises for knowledge dissemination, demonstrating the appropriate use of tools and methods taught.

This is an interactive workshop utilizing lecture and individual/team exercises and presentations.

Pre-workshop and post-workshop tests will be administered to gauge the relevant knowledge dissemination.

Course Duration2 days, 9am - 5pm

Course StructureDay 1

Design for manufacture

• Design framework
• DFMA considerations
• Early manufacturing involvement
• Early supplier involvement
• Design impact on cost

Part design for low cost manufacture 

• Selection of materials and processes
• General DFM guidelines 
• Manufacturing processes guidelines for: 

- Sheet metal stampings,
- Sheet metal fine blanking
- Injection molding 
- Rubber parts, gaskets, 
- Interconnections and connectors
- Die casting 
- Machining
- Ultrasonic welding, snap fits, living hinges, adhesive joining, threaded fastener 
- Painting, plating, minimize finishing requirements
- Rapid prototyping

Day 2

Design for assembly methodology

• Principles of design for assembly
• DFA guidelines
• Poka yoke, mistake-proof assembly 
• The Boothroyd/Dunhurst design efficiency analysis
• Handling and insertion 
• Piece part elimination

Process capability Cp, Cpk, DPU

• Variation and specifications Cp, Cpk
• Process yield, dpu analysis

Tolerancing

• Process capability, variation and specifications 
• Process yield, dpu analysis
• Tolerance analysis

Applying DFMA to company specific products and assemblies

Summing it all up