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Happy's Essential Skills: Design For Manufacturing and Assembly, Part 1
Happy's Essential Skills: Design For Manufacturing and Assembly, Part 1
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Happy’s Essential Skills: Design for Manufacturing and Assembly,
Part 1
Happy Holden | 06292016
Advances in interconnection technologies have occurred in response to the
evolution of component packages, electronic technology and increasing
complex functions. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that various forms of
printed wiring remains the most popular and cost effective method of
interconnections.
Manufacturing , assembly and test technologies have responded by improvements in their
technologies. These increased capabilities have made selection of technologies, design
rules and features so complex that a new function has developed to allow for the
prediction and selection of design parameters and performance versus manufacturing
costs. This is the planning for design, fabrication and assembly. This activity has also
been called design for manufacturing and assembly (DFM/A) or sometimes predictive
engineering. It is essentially the selection of design features and options that promote
costcompetitive manufacturing, assembly, and test practices. Later in this column, I will
offer a process to define producibility unique to each design or manufacturing process.
The purpose of this column is to provide information, concepts, and processes that leads
to a thoughtfully and competitively designed printed circuit, ensuring that all pertinent
design and layout variables have been considered.
Originators—Dewhurst & Boothroyd
Modern DFMA stems from the ideas of university professors Goefrey Dewhurst at
University of Massachusetts Amherst and Jeffery Boothroyd at University of Rhode Island
[1]. These Manufacturing Engineering professors came up with the concept that you could
predict the assembly time, dificulty and cost by cateloging and summing all the kenematic
actions it takes during assembly. This concept became so accurate that it was used to
predict assembly while a product was still in the design phase. Thus as a predictive
metric, it became Design for ManufacturingDfM. Today this technology is taught in
universities and used by most large OEMs around the world. The Dewhurst & Boothroyd
software (Table 1and Figures 1a & b) consists of:
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The D&B techniques consist of analyzing an assembly for these features:
The need for this part
How many fasteners are required
The number of different fastener types
The number of difficulttoassemble parts or subassemblies
The number of motions and twist/turns involved in each assembly step
The role of tooling and fixturing
The resulting analysis shows a:
Total part count
Theoretical minimum of parts or preassembled item (Pmin)
Assembly efficiency (ease of assemblyAE)
Assembly time
The analysis uses software to measure:
1. Prototype evaluations based on either actual or 3D models using Boothroyd and
Dewhurst method.
2. Pmin is a measure of the complexity of the product. In general, the more functionality
there is in a product, the higher the Pmin value.
3. Assembly Efficiency (AE) is a ratio of the theoretical minimum number of parts (Pmin)
to the estimated assembly time. An approximation is used to compute AE (2.933
seconds per part), so AE values are used for relative comparisons only.
Table 1: The
Dewhurst &
Boothroyd
DFMA software.
Figure 1a: the
Dewhurst &
Boothroyd
DFMA software.
Figure 1b: the Dewhurst & Boothroyd DFMA software.
In general, these are some of the guiding DFM/A principles:
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1. Know Your
History—Learn
from the past:
Returns,
Corrective
Actions
Processes,
Recalls, etc.
Know and
understand
problems and
issues with
current and past
products.
2. Standardize
Design Methods
& Tools:
Standardize
design,
procurement,
processes,
assembly and
equipment. Don’t,
redesign the
wheel—use
existing parts and
assemblies and
limit exotic or
unique
components.
3. Simplify the
Design—
Methods for Part
Reduction: Parts
reduction is one
of the best ways
to reduce the cost
of fabrication,
assembling a
product overhead
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and increase quality and reliability.
4. Simplify the Design—Parts Commonality via Multiuse / Multifunctional Parts:
Develop an approved or preferred parts lists or a standardized BOM. Use one piece
structures from molding, extrusions, castings and powder metals. Use Multi
functional parts that perform more than one function.
5. Design for Total Quality Management—Fundamental Principle of Lean: Lean
supply, fabrication and assembly processes are essential design considerations.
Develop and use standard guidelines appropriate for the process being performed.
Know and apply lean principles to design manual operations for the capabilities of the
operator. Practice ‘Ergonomics’ to maximize productivity and reduce operator fatigue
and discomfort.
6. Eliminate Waste: Overproduction, delayswaiting, transporting/moving, process
inefficiencies, queuesinventories, unnecessary motions and defective products.
7. Design for Parts Handling: Minimize handling to correctly position, orient and place
parts to avoid multiple or complex assembly orientations.
8. Design for Efficient Joining and Fastening: Avoid threated fasteners when
possible, consider alternatives; if used, minimize variety. Screws, bolts, nuts and
washers are timeconsuming to assemble and difficult to automate.
9. Use ErrorProofing Techniques: Mistakes will happen. What can go wrong will go
wrong. Use errorproofing techniques in product design and assembly.
10. Design for Process Capabilities: Make unnecessary the tight tolerances and
tolerances that are beyond the inherent capability of the manufacturing processes or
operators in a continuous production situation.
11. Design for Test, Repair & Serviceability: Defects will occur. Designing for ease of
test and repair will make these processes more efficient, cost effective, and reliable.
Failed products are often returned to the manufacturer for service and failure
analysis. Where possible, use the production test equipment/setup for return
analysis.
The foundation of a robust Design for Manufacturing system is a set of design guidelines
and tasks to help the product team improve manufacturability, increase quality, reduce life
cycle cost and enhance long term reliability. These principles need to be customized to
your company's culture, products, and technologies, and based on a solid understanding
of the intended production system—whether internal or external. The basis for these
principles is “Measures of Performance & Metrics” where design choices have a “SCORE”
that can be shared by all.
Develop and use standard guidelines appropriate for the process being performed. Know
and apply lean principles to design manual operations for the capabilities of the operator.
Practice ergonomics to maximize productivity and reduce operator fatigue and discomfort.
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Design Planning and Predicting Cost
The need for cost reduction in order to remain competitive is a principle responsibility of
product planning. On the average, seventyfive percent of the recurring manufacturing
costs are determined by the design drawing and specifications [2]. This was one of the
conclusions found by an extensive study General Electric conducted on how competitive
products were developed. Manufacturing typically determines production setup, material
management and process management costs (Figure 2), which are a minor part of the
overall product cost.
TimeToMarket along with competitive prices can determine a products ultimate success.
The first of a new electronic product in the market has the advantages. By planning the
PWB layout and taking into consideration aspects and costs of PWB fabrication and
assembly, the entire process of design and prototyping can be done with minimum
redesign (or respins).
Figure 2: Design
determines the
majority of the
cost of a
product.
Design Planning
and
Manufacturing
Planning
Electronics is one of the biggest enterprises there is globally. It is common for design to be
done in one hemisphere and manufacturing in another. It is also common for
manufacturing to be done in a number of different places simultaneously. An integrated
approach must be adopted when the intention is to rationalize fabrication and assembly as
part of the entire production system and not as individual entities as shown in Figure 3.
This dispersed manufacturing must be taken into consideration during the design planning
and layout process. No finished product is ever better than the original design or the
materials it is made from.
Figure 3: Fabrication and assembly rationalized by planning and design.
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GENERAL
CONSIDERATIONS
The planning process central focus will be the tradeoffs between the loss and gain in
performance for layout, fabrication, assembly and test versus the costs in these domains.
Therefore, some major considerations will be the following sections:
1. New product design process
2. The role of metrics
3. Layout tradeoff planning
Planning Concepts
Planning for design, fabrication and assembly (PDFA) is a methodology that addresses all
those factors that can impact production and customer satisfaction. Early in the design
process, the central idea of PDFA is to make design decisions to optimize particular
domains, such as “producibility,” “assembleability,” “testability,” as well as fit to a product
families, etc. in manufacturing. Planning takes place continuously in the electronic design
environment (Figure 4). The data and specifications flow in one direction, from product
concept to manufacturing. During the design process, sixty percent of the manufacturing
costs are determined in the first stages of design when only thirtyfive percent of the
design engineering costs have been expended. The typical response is shown in Figure 5.
[2].
Figure 4: The electronics design environment.
Producibility
Producibility is now regarded as an intrinsic characteristic of a modern design. Like the
concept of quality in manufacturing, it must be built in, not inspected in. Producibility must
be designed in; it cannot be a "checkpoint" in the design process or inspected in by
tooling.
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NEW PRODUCT
DESIGN
The keys to
superior
producibility in
new product
design can be
found in the
expanded design
process. One of
those key items is
the role of metrics
or databased
analysis of planning tradeoffs.
Figure 5: Design
costs
accumulate
early in the Life
Cycle compared
to intrinsic
manufacturing
costs.
Expanded
Design Process
The new
expanded design
process that incorporates planning, tradeoffs and manufacturing audits is shown in Figure
6 and Table 2. The process is made up of 12 separate functions that incorporate the
planning and tradeoffs sections in this book.
Figure 6: Specifications determine product partitioning and producibility
Table 2: The expanded electronics design process and its stages.
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This differs from
the more
conventional
design process
(Figure 3) by the
inclusion of four
important
functions:
1. The formal
Technology
Tradeoff Analysis
during
Specifications
2. Detailed Tradeoff
selection of
features for
layout, fabrication
and assembly
3. Design Advice
during
component
placement and
routing
4. Manufacturing
Audits to review
the finished
layout for
producibility, time
tomarket, and
competitiveness
Product
Definition
The initial new product design stage is specification and product definition. This key step
takes ideas, user requirements, opportunities and technologies and formulates the
executable specifications of a new product. During this operation, the ability to predict
what will happen in manufacturing by technologists that may not have any manufacturing
experience can affect both timetomarket and ultimate product costs. Figure 6 shows the
technology tradeoff analysis that requires the balance of loss and gain in various domains
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performance versus costs. Size and partitioning for IC and ASIC must be balanced with
overall packaging costs and the resultant electrical performance. All of these factors affect
the manufacturing and product cost.
Another definition of this process could be called a "verified design" [3]. A verified design is
defined as one that was predicted from models or measures that have been correlated to
past designs.
This is compared to the traditional approach which is a "nonverified design" or “trialand
error.” This is diagrammed in Figure 7. The advantage of the "verified design" can be
significant reduction in redesigns in order to achieve the original product objectives.
Figure 7: Design
incorporating
tradeoffs versus
traditional
design.
Editor’s Note:
Part 2 of this
article will be
published tomorrow, June 30, 2016.
Update: Click here for the part 2 of the article.
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