How a CMMS Can Help with Design for Manufacturing

Design for manufacturing (DFM) aims to reduce the complexity of manufacturing operations. It is a process of designing products, components, or spare parts for easy manufacturing and a better product. Design for manufacturing (DFM) aims to reduce the cost of raw materials and overall production.

DFM is similar to Design for Assembly (DFA) except that, as the name suggests, DFA focuses on fabricating products or parts for easy assembly. The goal is to reduce the assembly operations of parts or components of any given product.

A third concept, Design for Manufacturing Assembly (DFMA), combines principles of DFM and DFA methodologies. DFMA seeks to design quality products that you can easily manufacture and assemble with minimal costs.

DFM allows manufacturers to address potential problems during the design phase. For example, manufacturers can rethink their chosen raw materials and manufacturing processes, with the benefit of avoiding costly investments beforehand. Let’s look at some other benefits of DFM.

Why Carry Out DFM?

Streamlines Production Process

Reducing the complexity of production helps streamline your entire production process. With simplified parts, you can go from design to delivery of final products in much shorter periods.

Reduces Costs

Moving faster also means saving on inventory costs and variable overheads that increase with production time. You can also use the design phase to study your prototypes. Here, you can determine the most cost-effective way to approach manufacturing operations.

Improves Customer Experience

Because you’ll produce final goods quicker, you can also take them to market faster. This means customers will have access to products much quicker, leaving them with a better impression of your company.

Improves Product Quality

You can adopt cost-effective quality control methods during the design phase and iron out any potential quality kinks. Improved product quality will also reflect well with customers and leave you in good public standing.

"DFM is critical to bringing down a product’s final cost without compromising on the durability, quality, and performance of the product itself. The principles of DFM may seem simple at first, but the positive impact on improving the manufacturing process is invaluable."
MPC

How to Carry Out DFM

Getting the best out of the DFM process involves optimizing five key areas: Process, Design, Service Environment, Product Material, Testing, and Compliance. Let’s look at these categories, their meaning, and how to optimize them.

Process

This refers to the manufacturing process. DFM seeks to optimize production and reduce costs, and figuring out the best manufacturing process is paramount.

At this stage, you’ll need to consider your intended goals: What is your product? What are your pricing goals? What unit production costs would ensure you make a profit?

Consider the cost of your raw materials and production volume to arrive at a production process that best serves your needs. Injection molding, for example, is a capital-intensive process that isn’t cost effective if you make low-volume products. On the other hand, a process like thermoforming costs less and makes more sense for lower volumes.

Design

The product design stage is another critical aspect to consider. When done right, you can cut production times and save costs at this stage. Your best bet is to keep the design process as simple as possible without compromising quality.

Complex product design means longer production times as well as more money spent. Greater complexity also increases the likelihood of error, increasing the risk of waste when products don’t turn out right. Ensure that you design according to sound manufacturing principles. Also, be sure to supply any contract manufacturers with as much detail and specifications as possible.

"By understanding the connection between product design and cost, you can make decisions early on that will lead to higher margins, lower costs, and sustainable growth down the line."
‍Manufacturing Hub

Material

Similar to product design, the intended material for the final product requires close attention. You need materials that conform to the specific properties of your product.

Material properties may include flammability, thermal resistance, electrical resistance, strength, and color. You also want to pay attention to form. For example, if you decide on a particular metal, do you want it in sheets or strips? Which would be cheaper without losing out on quality? That is why it is important to inspect materials to ensure high-quality products.

Environment

Consider the intended service environment for your final product. Products that should work underwater will naturally require different specifications from products used in dry environments.

Of course, many products will have multi-purpose functionality. However, pay attention to your intended normal working conditions for most products and avoid unnecessary maintenance costs.

Testing and Compliance

Finally, you want to make sure your products are in compliance. First, this means figuring out what regulatory expectations you must follow and planning how to stay compliant.

As great as it is to cut costs, don’t mess with product quality. The last thing you want is to fail an audit or inspection or create substandard products.

To save costs, aim for compliance testing before mass production. This brings the whole DFM process full circle: test the product design. Also, make sure to use non-destructive test methods and preserve the test piece for repeated use.

DFM with a CMMS

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) can help you optimize many aspects of DFM. When appropriately used, CMMS software can help you streamline your DFM processes, manage your inventory, and organize your quality and compliance processes.

Create Standard Operating Procedures

As discussed, a significant benefit of DFM is a streamlined production process. Ensuring that your workflow proceeds smoothly often depends on establishing detailed processes and procedures for your maintenance teams.

A robust CMMS system can help you create, store, and share checklists and standard operating procedures for your various maintenance work. This can include everything from your design methodology to maintenance processes.

Manage Preventive Maintenance

If you don’t keep your equipment in good working condition, you will lose the time you save with DFM processes with breakdowns. As such, you should always be prepared to respond to downtime. The best asset management software and maintenance strategies involve working to maintain asset performance, increasing uptime and asset lifecycles, and preventing equipment failures from occurring in the first place.

Good maintenance management software will enable you to create a schedule and execute preventive maintenance plans. You can even use predictive maintenance, which leverages data from Internet of Things (IoT) devices to forecast breakdowns. This ensures maintenance departments focus their maintenance operations where they most need to.

Simplify Compliance Processes

In addition to SOPs, you can store your compliance requirements in your CMMS. You can also go beyond this to automate your compliance processes. MaintainX, for example, comes with work order management features that allow you to create and schedule work orders and maintenance activities.

Manage Data

Data on time and processes: The only way to know if your DFM processes are working is by tracking your data. A CMMS solution can help you establish which metrics and KPIs to track. In addition, good maintenance management software can simplify the process.

For example, you can use MaintainX’s work order management features instead of pen and paper to streamline the process. Create work orders in advance and automatically notify staff and maintenance technicians.

Over time, you’ll clearly see how well your efforts are working. Cloud-based MaintainX also comes with reporting dashboards and visualization features, which allow you to generate actionable insights from your information and enable data-driven decision-making.

Take Your Operations to the Next Level with MaintainX

Ready to take your operations to the next level? From inventory management to facility management, MaintainX has features that make your manufacturing and equipment maintenance tasks more manageable. If work order automation and real-time communication with your shop floor staff appeal to you, read more about our features, check out a case study to hear more from our customers or get in touch about our services.