Part design is a complicated process, and one must consider a wide range of factors when creating different product elements and components. One critical area when considering part design is “manufacturability”. This term refers to the ease in which a part can be made (or manufactured.) Manufacturability is in many ways dictated by a part’s design, and can have huge implications as to the cost and effectiveness of the end product.

What Are The Benefits Of Design For Manufacturability

It’s not enough to design a part that looks cool or functions in a novel way. One must consider how easy or difficult it would be to manufacture, to ensure that the product can be machined effectively with efficient lead times, manageable costs, and superior quality. With the right design, your parts can make/save your company money and help your product stand out from the competition.

Reduce The Overall Cost Of Manufacturing

Cost savings is one of the most important and beneficial results of designing for manufacturing. From better material yield, to faster machine times, the design of part can help cut costs at nearly every stage of the manufacturing process.

Improve the Production Process

Part design can also play a large part in improving machining processes, and expediting lead times. By taking into account existing tooling, available machines, standard materials, and more, product designers can ensure that their parts are manufactured in the most efficient way possible. Time saved, is money earned.

Increased Product Reliability

When designing for manufacturability, you are helping ensure that your product remains consistent over time and across vendors. A part that is well designed, will be able to be produced affordably and efficiently regardless of market fluctuations or adverse industry conditions (material availability, price fluctuations, tooling limitations, etc.)

How to Perform Design For Manufacturability

Understanding the importance of manufacturability is important, but how do we take those concepts and put them into practice? There are number of steps that a designer can take to ensure that their part can be manufactured in a timely and affordable manner.

Reduce The Number Of Components And Features

Keep it simple. The less there is to machine, the easier it is to make. Adding complex design elements or assembly items may add to the overall aesthetic, but they could be making your design more difficult to manufacture which leads to added time and costs.

Cost savings is one of the most important and beneficial results of designing for manufacturing.

Take a moment to consider if each part feature or assembly component is truly critical in your design. Does it serve a purpose or is could it be removed (or combined with other elements?) Are you calling for multiple materials, or could it all come out of the same type/thickness of metal, plastic, etc.?

By limiting the design elements or product components, you are also limiting the machine setup, run time, hardware and assembly hours. This all helps improve the manufacturability of your part, which saves you time and money.

Consider Machining/Fabrication Standards

When designing for manufacturing, it is important to stick to industry standards whenever possible. By avoiding specialized material and tooling, you can avoid unnecessary expense and limit production delays.

It can be helpful to consult your manufacturing source to confirm readily available materials and thicknesses, and update your part design accordingly. Most shops will keep certain sheets, bar, tube on hand, but will have to special order items that are not utilized as frequently.

You can also research, or have discussion regarding tooling. Most CNC tools (drills, taps, end mills, boring bars) will have common geometry relative to their size. When designing part features, consider whether your dimensions would require specialized tooling to machine, and determine whether it is worth an added cost or if it could be adjusted to reflect standard toling geometry.

Rely On Common Parts And Materials

Are you designing an assembly? Does your product require additional components (spacers, bushings, dowels, fittings,etc?) If so, you should attempt to incorporate items that are readily available through local vendors (or larger online industry sources.) Similar to relying on common material and tooling, hardware is also subject to delays and added costs on custom orders. It is much easier to adjust a part design to rely on elements that a shop already has on hand, or could have delivered on short notice.

Avoid Tight Tolerances

Part geometry and dimension tolerances play a tremendous role in the manufacturability of a given product. The designer should become familiar with the capabilities and limitation of the machining centers that will be utilized to produce there product, and realize that tighter tolerances come with added expense and increased lead times.

While it is common practice across the manufacturing industry to produce parts with extremely tight tolerances, it takes longer to setup, machine and inspect components with cricital part geometry and this should be considerd in a product’s design. Often times, opening a part’s tolerance can introduce additional machining options. This can have the added benefit of reducing part prices, and allowing more flexibility in production schedules which can decrease lead times.

Design For Assembly

It can be easy to over complicate a design when incorporating multiple parts into an assembly. Like the other aspects of manufacturing design, it is important to remember to keep assemblies as simple as possible to reduce time/costs and avoid any issues with reliable production.

Questions to Ask Yourself When Designing An Assembly

Is It Clear?

Will the person/team responsible for the assembly be able to clearly understand how all elements go together, or will they need to constantly consult the print or CAD file for confirmation. Overly complicated designs lead to added man hours at point of assembly, so simplifying where possible is always the prudent move.

Is It Necessary

Consider the number of nuts, bolts, dowels, fasteners called for on a given assembly. Are they all critical? Would this part or assembly still function the same way if certain items were removed? By decreasing the amount of parts required on for an assembly, you not only save money on material/hardware but you cut costs by decreasing the amount of time it takes to put together.

Is There Room For Improvement?

There are many instances where designers or engineers need to go back and modify an existing design to improve how a part functions. Consider whether your assembly design leaves room for implementing revisions. We have seen numerous designs that cannot be disassembled without destroying large parts of the existing assembly. Could this be corrected with a different design so that updated elements are more easily swapped in/out without damaging the assembly as a whole? By leaving yourself the option, you can design parts that are more easily modified which will help save you a great deal of time and money in the long run.