Managing Dfm: Learning To Coordinate Product And Process Design

Abstract

Abstract As firms experience greater pressure on new product time to market, the management of the design-manufacturing interface becomes a more important competitive variable. Too often, designs are “thrown over the wall” to manufacturing, only to discover that numerous engineering design changes are needed to reduce costs and improve quality. One electronics company I have studied analyzed their engineering change activity and found that engineering changes accounted for at least 20% of the business’s total overhead costs, that 80% of these changes were avoidable, and that the average cost of each of these avoidable changes was $54,000.