The purpose of this paper is to show that with the pressure constantly on companies to be more innovative and deliver new products more efficiently, it is vital that established best practices and knowledge are not forgotten and neglected.
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments. While most companies and their engineers will claim that they do design for assembly and manufacture, it is far from as widely practiced as claimed by manufacturers. This is surprising because the benefits to be gained from effectively undertaking DFMA as part of any development project can be massive – for some products running into $ millions in reduced part counts and assembly time. Moreover, as was highlighted at the 2008 DFMA Forum, the benefits to companies of early DFMA adoption can be greater; stretching from significantly reduced time to market to huge savings in production overheads.
With the pressure constantly on companies to be more innovative and deliver new products more efficiently, it is vital that in the rush to adopt newer product development tools and techniques – such as Lean New Product Development – that longer established best practices and knowledge are not forgotten and neglected.
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.
