Assembly Planbook - June 2008 - (Page 48)

Assembly Planning Cost Reduction Long-Term A recent survey among DFMA users, conducted by Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc. (Wakefield, RI) revealed that early design decisions profoundly affect the savings and, more significantly, the total manufacturing returns in the long term. Sixty-eight percent of the group, which included Fortune 400 companies, measured an increase in production throughput, and 47 percent an increase in profit per unit of floor space after applying DFMA to their organizations. For example, “We achieved a 300 percent increase in profit per square foot of floor space by using DFMA to take cost and labor out of product,” says Mike Shipulski, director of engineering at Hypertherm Inc. (Hanover, NH). “We’ve barely begun documenting some of the savings we know we’re achieving,” he adds. Some participants also contributed to a candid roundtable discussion about applying design simplification and early costing to lean and Six Sigma programs. To download the survey report, visit www.dfma.com. an extremely low ease-of-assembly rating,” Inserra recalls. “There was plenty of room for improvement.” From his service background, he was able to point out areas of the product that were difficult to reach and disassemble. More often than not, those areas presented assembly difficulties as well. “In its initial design, the equipment included subassemblies that could not be removed without first taking out several others,” Inserra says, “and the inside of the box was cramped for manual operations.” The team used DFMA analyses to compare several different designs, brainstorming to reduce parts and related assembly times as it determined the most cost-effective approach. “The DFMA results helped us to evaluate alternative designs,” Inserra says. For example, brainstorming following one round of analysis suggested that splitting the top box chassis into three units would minimize interference during assembly and disassembly operations. One innovation that stemmed from this portion of the DFMA analysis was to replace fasteners on the chassis with interconnecting slots and “finger” tabs. Another design change that came out of the brainstorming sessions was the use of self-clinching inserts to mount the CPU board to the chassis. “Using the self-clinching inserts helped us to reduce fastener count by over 50 percent in the top box,” Inserra says. The DFMA analysis helped to drive more than two-thirds of the parts, cables and fasteners out of the oscilloscope top box, and made it seven times easier to assemble. Wire routing is improved and all components are easily accessible for installation or service. The new sheet-metal chassis consists of an upper and lower box and a removable front panel, eliminating awkward and constrained assembly tasks. “The new chassis makes troubleshooting in the field far simpler,” Inserra says. “It also separates the manufacturing process into easy stages.” Team members are now working on two more major product overhauls to create next-generation designs. This time their analyses will include DFMA to establish “should-cost” estimates for outside manufacturing and services. “Our teams are getting better at the DFMA methodology,” Wiseman says. “I’m absolutely sure that we will be using DFMA going forward on our future design projects.” Collaboration Cuts Costs The spectrum of telecommunications products and services that Tellabs Inc. (Naperville, IL) manufactures and delivers ranges from residential optical network terminals located in a home, to large, multirack systems in the offices of the world’s largest communications providers. The firm provides professional services for networks, and its broadband systems enable voice, video and data services over wireline and wireless networks around the world. A well-organized product development process is crucial to serving Tellabs’ diverse customer base. A central element of that process is the collaborative involvement between the various engineering disciplines, according to Mike Nagy, staff engineer in product engineering. The overall objective is to design high-quality, low-cost products that are efficiently assembled and meet customer requirements. Product cost targets are met or exceeded by minimizing part counts, optimizing design and assembly, specifying efficient manufacturing processes, and ensuring error-free assembly. Manufacturing and mechanical engineers meet these objectives by engaging in collaborative negotiations to balance design and assembly issues throughout the design process. According to Nagy, the collaborative DFMA process used at Tellabs is based on the principles of design simplification, as well as the utilization of software-based assessment tools to maximize cost avoidance in the product development process. Product engineers use these processes and tools to assess product designs continuously throughout the product development process. Central to the success of the process is the constructive dialogue between manufacturing and development engineers after feedback is provided to the design team. The DFMA process at Tellabs is mapped closely to the product development process, Nagy explains. Product development is comprised of numerous phases. It begins with feasibility analysis, continues with conceptual design, high-level design, low-level design, prototype phase and finally, the release phase. Each of the phases has exit criteria and a loop back if the criteria are not met. The product engineer—a manufacturing engineer—interacts with the designers from feasibility through product release. In many respects, the product engineers are part of the design team. Product engineers bring a unique assembly perspective to the product development team. Early in the process, DFMA standards, guidelines and project objectives are reviewed with the designers as the project concepts are 48 ASSEMBLY / June 2008 www.assemblymag.com http://www.dfma.com http://www.assemblymag.com

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Assembly Planbook - June 2008 Contents Editorial Bonding Lines Quality in Assembly Assembly Lines Assembly in Action Fastening or Bonding? Loose Lips Sink Assembly Systems DFMA Cuts Downstream Costs Robots Lend a Hand Products Advertisers Index Classified Leading Lean

Assembly Planbook - June 2008

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