How to maximize your product’s sustainability in production
Maintaining the life-line of your product
To create something out of thin air from an idea is always the hardest step. However, the picture becomes manifest once conceptualized, iterated, and molded into the physical world.
Such manifestations of ideas can become exceptional and revolutionary feats in time.
Manufacturing products implies production at scale. You take a refined product that’s undergone verification and validation testing efforts, marketing campaigns, pre-manufacturing evaluation, regulatory buy-ins and transfer it to the production floor.
A design transfer takes the refined product and establishes requirements suitable for production on the manufacturing floor.
QA Consulting says Design Transfer is the culmination of the medical device design team’s efforts during which the product and process designs are transferred to production.¹
Ideally, you want to keep the manufacturing team in the loop during the entire product development process so that any design iterations, modifications, etc., are vetted by them.
You want to ensure that there are little to no issues during the design (tech) transfer phase.
Throughout the product’s lifecycle, design and the way it is produced (manufacturing) depend on one another. One cannot succeed without the other.
The relationship between Design & Manufacturing
James Dyson once said:
We always want to create something new out of nothing, and without research, and without long hard hours of effort. But there is no such things as a quantum leap. There is only dogged persistence — and in the end you make it look like a quantum leap
The synergy between design and manufacturing is imperative during the production phases. A great product takes sustained effort on all fronts, not just in the immediate now.
Taking a design to the manufacturing phase involves several processes, which are often done in stages and repeat themselves. Iterating your plan lets you improve upon an existing idea based on new information such as different applied forces, material changes, design sustainability, etc.
This is known as iterative design.
Brief Case Study: Stability Mount for Motion Capture
Let’s say you design a new camera mount that is met to go on a roll cage inside of a drift car, actual project, more on that in a later piece.
First, you’d start with figuring what you want the mount to do, i.e., determine a set of requirements that can incorporate the following:
- Fit
- Function
- Performance
- Sustainability/longevity based on exposure to different forces
There are a few ways to come up with requirements.
Once these are determined, initial sketches are created.
The sketches are converted into 3D files where the idea becomes a digital living entity. This entity can then be prototyped or manufactured via various subtractive (SM) and additive manufacturing (AM) techniques.
During the prototype stage, it’s time to refine and test your design.
For example, you can try the fitment on the roll cage getting back to the camera mount. Or test location and force application to better understand how the support will react under a few g’s.
PSA: I endorse safe driving, and if you’re racing/drifting, only on a track.
Now you’re ready to produce the final pre-production version.
The polished design can be manufactured in various ways, but the result is the same.
Keep in mind what method you choose to create the final pre-production or production part. You’ll want to account for several features or nuances that are inherent per method.
Let me show you what I mean.
What is Design for Manufacturing
Incorporating design for manufacturing creates a product by considering the end production process of that thing or entity.
Formally,
Designing for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFM or DFMA) is a critical part of the product development cycle. It involves optimizing the design of your product for its manufacturing and assembly process, merging the design requirements of the product with its production method.²
You’ll essentially design a part or product with the final building or scale-up in mind.
It involves optimizing the design of your product for its manufacturing and assembly process, merging the design requirements of the product with its production method².
This is crucial in today’s world, given the inherent global world and mass production.
You don’t want to pour your heart and soul into a product and realize that when it’s time to transfer it to a firm for production, they cannot make it because the design is too complicated.
That right there is one of the essential concepts on DFM.
There are a few more of them to keep in mind.
Importance of Design for Manufacturing
Let’s go over why you should spend more time upfront figuring out how to create not only a refined design but suitable enough for manufacturing.
Why Should You Design for Manufacturing and Assembly³:
- Cost reduction
- Streamlined Production Scale-Up
- Iron-outs any kinks or issues that may arise in production
- Higher quality
Every company wants to reduce costs wherever possible. It’s the difference between a failed product or unreleased product versus a sustained production in the market.
Not to mention, this allows better management of resources to ensure long-term manufacturing.
Optimization is key.
Optimizing the design saves time in the long term when you scale up because the part is already in a state where your desired manufacturing method can handle it.
Spend the time upfront, refine the design and user experience, and own and use your product.
The product can be made once the design is refined and the initial production process is somewhat understood,
But first, how would you know what to do during the design phase before manufacturing your idea?
How to incorporate Design for Manufacturing
Incorporating DFM is independent of what Computer-aided design (CAD) software you use.
However, there are slight differences in the method (subtractive or additive) you choose to create the product.
For the purposes of this piece, I will only discuss additive manufacturing as this is what my background and start-up focus are on.
A few things to keep in mind — You’ll want to⁴:
- Streamline your designs. Make them modular.
- Use readily available, non-complex components. Custom components are a hassle with time, cost, availability, design incorporation, etc.
- Streamline your products. Use the same components and techniques between product lines where applicable. Related to the first bullet, streamlining your designs can also play into your product lines.
- Streamline your equipment. If the design and components are relatively the same, then there’s no reason why your equipment can’t be.
A study at Rolls-Royce reveals that design determines 80% of the final production costs of 2,000 components⁴.
How to streamline your designs:
- Less design complexity — one of my mentors always said that the more minor features or assemblies you have, the easier it is to make the part. There’s also the sense of cleanliness or effortlessness when you glance over at the minimal amount of features.
- Combine the use of 3D-Printing and Rapid Prototyping to test your Minimal Viable Products (MVP) or pre-production unit in-house. Iterate as needed.
How to streamline your equipment or manufacturing process:
- Pay attention to what components are used. Keep the same parts where applicable.
- If possible, double up or batch your design features into one part.
- When it comes to assembly, include guides or features (such as chamfers, tapers, etc.) to help with quicker alignment.
- Listen to your operators build technicians. Ask them where things can be improved.
Bring the people responsible for building the product into those meetings and suggest modifications.
They’re the experts on the product.
Day in and day out, they spend the most time with the product.
This, of course, is for during production, when you want to improve the process.
Applied DFM in Additive Manufacturing (AM)
Most of my design and production experience comes from the AM sector. I’ve learned how to incorporate AM into your pre-and post-production workflow so that you’re constantly improving your process.
A few things to keep in mind here, of course:
- You’ll want at least one 3D Printer.
- Depending on your application, you may opt for a more industrial or higher-end machine with a broader range of capabilities.
3D Printing lets you develop mock-ups of your pre-production unit or post-production change, test it, and iterate before implementation. It’s at this stage that you’ll want to run simulation tests, strength testing, mechanical failure, depending on the use case.
The idea to Product Process
Using this toolset also saves you time and money because of the fact that you’ll have your own machinist essentially readily available to make your parts without adhering to a build schedule or having to pour money into other companies to speed things up.
Side note: throwing more money at something does not speed things up; It slows things down.
Alongside your pre-production test units, you can also incorporate 3D printing into your production floor by designing test jigs and tooling then prototyping them via AM.
The beauty of AM is that design complexity has no restriction on manufacturing.
For the most part, AM lets you create incredibly abstract features in a relatively short time compared to traditional manufacturing methods that render too costly.
You might also be able to get away with using AM to produce your production pieces.
A brief discussion on AM vs. SM
Concerning cost vs. AM and SM, let’s consider the following.
If you decide to implement AM as your primary manufacturing process, keep in mind that the cost of your parts independent of quality generally stays the same.
In SM, tooling costs are typically paid off as you produce more pieces. Molding a few batches of a component can be costly. However, as time goes, the price of parts drops with an increase in quantity because the tooling has already been created.
In AM, you have to consider no tooling but rather raw material usage.
That’s why it’s imperative for metal 3D printing to have a high yield, coupled with recycling processes to reuse metal powder because of how expensive the entire process is.
Recap
Taking an idea through the entire creation process has its challenges. These challenges increase if the design is not conducive to manufacturing processes. You may end up with a unique product; however, it may fail because it is too complicated to make and sustain in mass production.
Please pay attention to what you make and how you make it. Spend the extra time planning how the product will be made.
Ask yourself or your team the following:
- What is my end process going to look like?
- Can we refine the design? If so, where?
- What materials/components is the product going to be made out of? Can we use similar materials from another product line?
- What equipment do we need? Can we leverage existing equipment and process knowledge?
- What will the cost/year per product and component look like to sustain this venture?
- Can we iterate on the design sooner and improve before reaching production?
- What are the in-process testing/compliance regulations going to look like?
By examining your design through a lens, you may uncover a few deficiencies that need to be addressed. If so, use Design for Manufacturing.
One last thing!
If you’ve learned something new from this, let me know! I’d love to hear about it, Cheers! 😄
