Mechanical Design for Manufactures - Research Paper Example

Mechanical Design Insert (s) Mechanical Design Section Importance of DFM, DFMA and SPC Design for Manufacture (DFM), together with Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) and Statistical Processes Control(SPC) have a diverse number of important roles in the manufacturing process some of which include minimizing the complexity of the various manufacturing operations, reducing the overall manufacturing or production cost, improving the ease of manufacturing as well as allow for the potential manufacturing problems to be identified and fixed during the design phase when it is least expensive to address them. Design for Manufacture (DFM) refers to anything that may inform a designer about any particular aspect of manufacturing of the product that can allow wise decisions to be made. DFM is particularly applied to the initial product design where it ensures that the product is manufactured easily at an economical cost and is also built to the required quality and reliability (Wood, 2007, p.29). On the other hand, Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) is a combination of two manufacturing methodologies namely the design for ease of manufacturing of the product parts (Design for Manufacture) as well as the design for easiness of assembly (design for Assembly) (Anderson, 2014, p.102). DFMA is important to the manufacturing process as it provides guidance that can help designers to simplify the structure of the product, reduce both the manufacturing and assembly costs and to quantify the improvements. In addition, DFMA can also be applied in the manufacturing process to help identify, quantify and consequently eliminate the inefficiencies or wastes in the product design. Design for manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) help in proactive design of products with the objective of optimizing each of the manufacturing functions such as repair, service, delivery procurement, assembly as well as fabrication. This way of operation lets DFM to provide an assurance of the most appealing cost, reliability, quality, safety, regulatory compliance, customer satisfaction and time-to-market. Finally, Statistical Process Control (SPC) is a data driven method of quality control that involves the use of control charts and other product/process measurements to measure and control quality during the manufacturing process. Control chart is arguably one of the most successfully used SPC tools and are widely used to record data and help detect unusual events. During the manufacturing processes, the primary use of control charts is to provide the necessary control limits on a time basis through which processes can effectively be monitored. In this regard, SPC is critically important to the manufacturing process as it provides a guide to the appropriate action required to improve the functionality or cost effectiveness of the manufacturing process. The Development of DFM normally involves the collaboration between the manufacturing engineers, designers, suppliers, procurement staff as well as the end users. Generally, the two major aspects of DFM include parts reduction and parts standardization. Some of the techniques that are widely used in the development of Design for Manufacture (DFM) include substituting the fault tolerant vias in the design, changing the spacing of the interconnect wires and substituting the higher yield cells particularly when permitted by power, timing and routability. This is particularly because Design for Manufacturing (DFM) is intended to design products using manufacturing processes that are simplified and economically feasible. Design for manufacturability basically emerged in general engineering art as a way of designing products and manufacturing them easily. DFM’s basic idea exists in almost every engineering subject. This technologically based framework nonetheless differs widely depending on the manufacturing technology The development of design for manufacture entity is traced the late centuries when the need arise for a more relative means to ease the manufacturing of a product, part or assemble these products steadfastly. In order to bear the production monotony, design for manufacture henceforth emerged On the other hand, the costs in manufacturing generally refer to the costs of all the products consumed during the process of converting the raw materials into products. According to Ostwald and McLaren (2004, p.64), manufacturing costs are normally classified into three major categories namely the cost of direct materials, the cost of direct input of labor as well as the cost of manufacturing overhead. Firstly, the direct materials cost is the cost of the raw materials that eventually became part of the finished product. Generally, raw materials normally range from the finished product itself to the wood, metals, bolts and nuts that went into making the final product. Design for manufacture is the most convenient and cost-effective modes of production. Cost and quality issues in manufacturing processes are further enhanced by use of Statistical process control (SPC). SPC is able to cut costs, sort out small problems in a well-timed manner in addition to ensuring quality. In particular, this method helps in quality regulation using three things. First, it determines the limits associated with a process. Second, it gets rid of every source of variation that is not common to a manufacturing process. Finally, it uses data software and charts to keep track of every manufacturing process in order to establish whether the parameter of a process is growing past the predefined limit. Companies overly reduce their labour rates by an off-shore manufacturing and assembly. This approach reduces manufacturing costs. This process’ cost-friendliness in terms of invested capital by the companies nonetheless take sometimes for the better understanding of its significant potential; for cost savings during the design phase of the products Similarly the direct labor cost is the total cost of wages paid to the individual workers involved in the production of the finished product. Finally, the manufacturing overhead category (also known as the indirect manufacturing costs) refers to all the costs that are incurred throughout the course of the manufacturing process but can not be traced directly to the project’s physical units. For example, this may include the costs of repairing the facilities or wages paid for the inspection of the completed product. The sum of all the unit costs from the three categories can be used for inventory valuation on the balance sheet as well as in the income statement for the calculation of the cost of goods sold. Process Capability (CP) and Process Capability Index (CPK) are two major statistical tools that are also critically important in the manufacturing process not o0nly during the engineering design of the product but also quality management. CP particularly measures the potential capability of the process, which is widely defined as the allowable spread of the project over its actual spread. This particularly refers to the difference between the upper specification limit of the project and its lower specification limit. According to Anderson (2014, p.66), CP can effectively be used during the manufacturing process to help determine the ability of the manufacturing process to meet a particular specification. In most cases, a higher CP value (≥1.0) indicates that a process has the potential of being capable of meeting a given specification while a lower CP value ( Read More