The Design Engineer's Guide for Total Product Cost Using DFA

摘要

Adding a few custom operations in DFA that compliment the inherent capabilities of the software provide a tool for the design engineer to fully understand 100% of the total product cost and additional TCO costs during product development. Using DFA to track the costs of materials, labor, and overhead early in product design should guide the engineer towards hitting that elusive manufacturing cost target in addition to meeting the product function and time-to-market goals during product development. The techniques reviewed such as DFA application targeting parts and labor, understanding company finance basics and overhead, and TCO application are examples of suggested areas for the design engineer to expand their knowledge base of the product value stream. While it does take time, design engineers should always be investing in expanding their manufacturing knowledge. Some sources to use include; if you have in-house manufacturing, talk to your company's manufacturing engineers and visit the shop floor to go see how parts are machined; visit and listen to the individuals who assemble the products, get their feedback on the ease or lack thereof of how the product goes together; visit suppliers to understand their manufacturing capabilities (good learning and good lunches go a long way on these visits). Do this to understand that design decisions have a great impact towards the entire value stream of the products built at your companies. If you became a design engineer it was probably due to a passion for problem solving and creativity. Maybe you have the design part down pat, but expanding your knowledge base into the areas of manufacturing, assembly, and beyond will be a great compliment to your skill set. So start with learning how to use DFA, it's a great place to start the journey and can be your guide ... once again, speaking through experience.