Support
Design for manufacturability /manufacturing (DFM) FAQs
Q: What is DFX technology?
| A: DFX, as it is popularly known, stands for “Design for X” where X can represent a variable such as Manufacturability, Assembly, Serviceability, Reliability, Quality and so on. DFx technology, as developed by HCL Technologies , is a revolutionary technology framework for designers that facilitates upstream validation for DFx. Leveraging years of manufacturing expertise, it is engineered to help advice the designer on common problems faced downstream in the product lifecycle. |
Q: What is Design for Manufacturability (DFM)?
| A: Design for Manufacturability (DFM) refers to the practice of designing products that simplify and optimize the manufacturing process. It involves collaborating closely with engineers, designers, and production teams to ensure that every component is manufacturable, cost-effective, and of high quality right from the start. By addressing real-world production constraints and challenges during the design phase, Design for Manufacturability (DFM) allows for smoother workflows and overall better outcomes in mass production. |
Q: Why is Design for Manufacturability (DFM) Important?
| A: Design for Manufacturability (DFM) plays a critical role in bridging the gap between innovation and production. But why does it matter so much? 1. Reduced Waste 2. Risk Mitigation 3. Enhancement of Product Quality 4. Cost Efficiency 5. Faster Time-to-Market |
Q: What is DFMPro?
| A: DFMPro is a CAD integrated solution developed using HCL’s DFx technology to carry out DFx review of product design. DFMPro enables faster, less costly and more optimized product development, as well as automation of the DFx review process. DFMPro provides a sophisticated environment for designers to custom-configure the pre-built design rules and hence the knowledge. Providing simple, accurate and robust design analysis based on DFx related rules, DFMPro ultimately leads to better products by giving designers the confidence and capabilities to build superior models. Designers are free to innovate with the assurance that they won’t pass costly mistakes downstream. |
Q: What are the key benefits of DFMPro?
A: A typical organization follows and maintains its own set of design review checklists based on their best manufacturing practices. Conducting a manual design review against the checklist is a cumbersome task which often leads to errors. DFMPro automates the design review process. It provides the following key benefits:
- Allows early prediction and prevention of DFx issues
- Assists evolution of optimal design and product quality
- Facilitates concurrent design of product and process
- Decreases lead-time by reducing backtracking and design iterations
Q: Which are the industries that are using DFMPro?
A: Currently, DFMPro is being used by manufacturing companies in Industrial equipment’s, contract manufacturers, Automotive, Aerospace, Medical devices, Consumer durables & electronics and semiconductor equipment manufacturers. DFMPro is also being used by Tier 1 suppliers supporting various OEM’s. DFMPro can be used by any company in the discrete manufacturing sector to improve product designs, reduce rework and manufacturing cost.
Q: Which OS Does DFMPro Support?
| A: DFMPro works with Windows® 7 & Windows® 10. |
Q: How is DFMPro licensed?
| A: To get information on type of licenses and related queries, kindly Contact Us for more details. |
Q: What are the specific rules supported by DFMPro?
A: DFMPro supports rules related to the following manufacturing processes:
- Milling
- Turn
- Sheet Metal Fabrication
- Injection Molding
- Casting
- Sand casting
- Die Casting
- Thermoforming
- Investment Casting
- Tubing
- Welding
- Assembly
- Additive Manufacturing
- And more
Q: Can I choose the specific rules which are applicable to my practice?
| A: Yes. Rules in DFMPro may vary from user-to-user based on their best practices. You can configure DFMPro to run only selected checks by enabling relevant rules in DFMPro Rule Manager application. |
Q: When I run DFMPro, can I be assured of an error-free design?
| A: Like any software product, DFMPro and its pertaining algorithm is constantly being enhanced to give the best possible results and experience to the user. However, in some cases, users may find the DFMPro recommendations deviating from specific expectations. In case certain manufacturing features or processes are unsupported by existing DFMPro algorithm, then these areas of design are classified as “unanalyzed regions”. This helps users to manually review the respective areas. Please refer the limitations section in the help files to know existing limitations in more detail. Our support team is available to listen to specific requests for enhancing the software. |
Q: While running DFMPro, what should I do when errors that are reported are not genuine errors?
| A: Some errors are context specific. i.e. in a certain context, violation of some rules may not be considered as an error. DFMPro gives the user the option to override such instances of violation by ignoring them. It may also be a good practice to check if parameters that are configured for such rules are correct or need modification as they may need to be reviewed frequently. |
Q: A considerable amount of time is taken when DFMPro runs on complex parts. Is there any way to improve the response time?
A: DFMPro needs to do an in-depth analysis of the geometry to detect various rules violation and in certain cases, this process can be time consuming for complex parts. The validation time depends on the various factors namely, number of rules enabled for execution and number of manufacturing features on the geometry to be validated. The users can try to reduce the time by running rules selectively via configuration through DFMPro Rule Manager instead of executing all the rules each time.
Q: Can DFMPro be customized?
A: The default settings of the rules in DFMPro are based on global best practices. However, there are certain rules which are proprietary to a specific organization’s manufacturing practices. DFMPro provides opportunities to organizations for embedding these rules inside DFMPro as custom rules. For further information on how you can enjoy the benefits of our scalable DFX platform, kindly contact Technical Support.
Q: How can a user benefit from “DFMPro Customization”?
A: With DFMPro Customization a user can
- Program and integrate proprietary or organization specific rules.
- Integrate other stand-alone analysis engines that the organization may have, with DFMPro
- Custom Integrate with the organization’s own databases or PDM system.
- While programming the rules he or she can leverage powerful manufacturability analysis engine (using the patented Feature Recognition technology from HCL) which is an integral part of DFMPro.
- Integrate with the organization’s workflow.
Q: Can HCL help us with customization?
A: Yes, we at HCL will be happy to help you create a custom solution proprietary for your organization.
Our experts can assist you in:
- Automating your existing best practices into programmable rules.
- Programming the rules and integrate with DFMPro Customization.
- Writing connectors wherever necessary to integrate DFMPro Customization with your organization’s workflow.
Q: What are the reporting formats available with DFMPro?
A: To enable seamless collaboration between various stakeholders in the DFM cycle, DFMPro provides various reporting formats. Following at the reporting formats available for consumption
- Microsoft Excel®
- XML
- PDF (static)
- Solidworks eDrawings®
The availability of above reports varies across different CAD platforms. Kindly get in touch with us to arrange a detailed demo of the solution.
Q: Does DFMPro provide cost analysis of the part?
A: In order for organizations to focus on cost reduction, DFMPro via its DFX platform now provides a Design to Cost functionality as an Add-On to DFMPro. The purpose of the design to cost module is to provide a Rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost feedback to the design engineer during design. This coupled with manufacturability feedback via DFMPro, gives a holistic view of how the design decisions during early design phase, contribute to overall manufacturing time, effort and cost.
Kindly get in touch with us to arrange a detailed demo of the solution.
Q: I want to track how my designs performed during their lifecycle. Can HCL help in this?
A: DFX platform now comes with a DFX Analytics module as an Add-On to DFMPro. Through this module, organizations can bring in a traceability into the designs process. DFX Analytics is a powerful solution that allows for effective tracking of key metrices such as design metrics, rule metrics and user metrics. For in depth understanding of the solution, kindly get in touch with us to arrange a detailed demo of the solution.
Q: Can I add materials to DFMPro rules?
A: Yes. Material support for various rules across the scope of DFMPro is available and can be tailored specific to organization’s needs. DFMPro comes packaged with a default material database which can be updated and maintained to suit organization’s needs.
Q: Is additive manufacturing supported in DFMPro?
A: Yes. DFMPro comes packaged with out of the box basic additive manufacturing checks to get organizations started on the path of design for additive manufacturing. Processes supported are 3DP, SLA and FDM. Kindly get in touch with us to understand how we can help your organizations journey towards effective additive manufacturing techniques.
