To read part I of the blog on best implementation strategies for automotive industry click here
DFMPro helps organizations bring in a standardized approach towards “Design for manufacturing” to eliminate downstream issues, design rework, cost overruns and produce high quality products. Till date, DFMPro has assisted hundreds of customers in various domains to achieve their individual targets and become more efficient.
There are multiple approaches which can be taken to derive the maximum benefits from a DFMPro deployment. One can select from the available approaches by taking into account the different environments within an individual company complemented by the type of business, nature of products, and the spread of operations (both internal and external supplier base) across the globe etc.
In Part 1, we saw how a multinational automotive company used DFMPro to address some of their key challenges. Part 2 will focus on the DFMPro deployment strategy adopted by a large client in the medical sector to suit their business needs and challenges.
Note: These are best practices adopted by customers specific to their individual scenarios.
Case Study 2:
Industry: Medical
Footprint: Global
 | The challenges that drove this customer to adopt DFMPro were as follows:
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4. Long manufacturing check lists were difficult to refer day in day out.
5. Changes in tooling at supplier end due to non-conforming designs leading to cost overruns.
To ensure the benefits of DFMPro were successfully communicated to the design fraternity before the software was rolled out, a pilot study was conducted. The software was already procured for ready usage.
Phase 1: Pilot study to showcase advantages of using DFMPro early during design stage
- SME’s (Subject matter experts) mainly comprising of the manufacturing engineering team was formed.
- Configuration of existing DFMPro rules as per tooling and manufacturing requirements was completed.
- Training conducted by an industry expert in Injection Molding design for a selected section of the design community accompanied by DFMPro training
- Designs that went through multiple revisions from different product lines (mainly high cost Injection molding parts) were selected.
Validation of live and legacy 3D data over a period of 10 weeks to capture trends in DFM issues using DFMPro. A data monitoring process was developed to track analysis results from DFMPro.
Phase 2: Outcome
- The study uncovered DFM issues and associated risks earlier in the design cycle on the selected data set over multiple revisions.
- This highlighted the possibility of reducing late rework and costly changes required for design changes.
- Wall thickness issue on one of the low yield components which resulted in significant loss of revenue was captured during DFMPro analysis on revision A. Significant savings opportunity was identified if DFMPro analysis was performed on this component during the design stage before the steel was cut.
- Other critical molding guidelines such as drafts, wall thicknesses, thin steel conditions etc. were captured by DFMPro early. This was validated by SMEs which helped DFMPro adoption across the design community.
- DFMPro identified design issues which were identified during supplier mold flow analysis. This provided opportunity for savings in time (typical turnaround time from suppliers for DFM/Mold flow feedback was 5-6 weeks) and subsequent associated costs.
Benefits Derived:
- Study enabled a cultural change across design from DFM standpoint
- Faster design reviews
- Better synergy between advanced manufacturing and design teams
- Increase in design productivity due to adherence to manufacturing check lists
- Identifying areas that enabled less scrap generation
- Learning and capability development of design engineers
Stay tuned for more such best practices in our upcoming blogs and learn how other customers in industries such as Medical, High tech, Industrial successfully implemented DFMPro.