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Design for Assembly Support (DFA) Assistance

Design for Assembly (DFA) is a process that requires the involvement of Assembly Engineers. The Sequence of Analysis is as follows: (Concept Design, DFA, DFM, and a Detailed Design of the Optimizations). The Design for Assembly principles or guidelines we follow the following list of rules:

  • Design for a Base Part to Locate other Components

  • Design for Component Symmetry for Insertion

  • Design Parts for Handling, Insertion, and Retrieval

  • Design Parts with Self-Fastening Features

  • Design Parts with Self-Locating Features

  • Emphasize ' Top-Down' Assemblies

  • Encourage Modular Design

  • Minimize Part Count

  • Minimize Reorientation of Part during Assembly

  • Standardize Parts (Minimum use of Fasteners)

DFA ASSISTANCE

The body of knowledge for manufacturing is immense, these are just a few examples of areas that can be improved to reduce overall costs to your component or Assembly.

Design for Manufacturing Support (DFM) Assistance

Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and design for assembly are the integration of product design and the process planning of one common activity. Our goal is to design or refine your product to easily and economically be manufactured. Design for Manufacturing is underlined by the fact that about 70% - 80% of manufacturing costs of a product (cost of assembly, materials, and processing) that where determined at the design decision stage, however with production decisions ( such as machine tool selection or process planning) is only responsible for about 20% - 30% of costs.

 

The heart of any (DFM) system is a group of design principles or guidelines that are structured to help the designer or customer reduce the cost and difficulty of manufacturing an item. We follow the following listing of these rules.

  • Avoid Separate Fasteners

  • Design for Ease of Fabrication

  • Design Parts for Multi-Use

  • Design Parts to be Multi-Functional

  • Develop a Modular Design

  • Maximize Compliance

  • Minimize Assembly Directions

  • Minimize Handling

  • Reduce the Total Number of Parts

  • Use of Standard Components

DFM ASSISTANCE

We use Solidworks CAD software as well as MasterCam CAM software systems to allow us to view, manipulate, print native parts, assembly and drawing files from customers and import other CAD file formats into Solidworks or dry run with MasterCam. This allows us to deliver accurate quotes more quickly - along with all the advantages of DFA and DFM.

 

 NOTE: Both (DFA) and (DFM) seek to reduce common goals of (Labor Cost, Material, and Overhead). These two are commonly referred to as a single methodology (DFMA) Design for Manufacturing and Assembly. Bottom line is to reduce your overall manufacturing cost, improve efficiency, and retain exceptional product quality.

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