Enhancing the Manufacturability Methodology for Evaluating Product Designs with a Pilot Case Study

McCall, T. G., Walden, C., & Dalton, L. (2017). Enhancing the Manufacturability Methodology for Evaluating Product Designs with a Pilot Case Study. 2017 International Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Management. Huntsville, AL.

Understanding the manufacturability concerns of a product design is a crucial part of a successful product introduction. The literature suggests that a significant portion of a products lifecycle costs are committed in the early design phase and that manufacturability concerns are one of the major drivers of these costs. The lack of insight into the manufacturability of a design can potentially lead to expensive design iterations, tooling modifications, the potential for rework and other factors all resulting in costly delays and other potential risks to production introductions. As a result, there is a benefit in the development of a practical way to assess the manufacturability of a design. This paper focuses on the enhancements of a methodology for performing manufacturability assessments of product designs. This new approach, referred to as Manufacturability Assessment Knowledge-based Evaluation (MAKE), utilizes a taxonomy of key aspects of manufacturability combined with subject matter experts (SMEs) to assess a product design. The results from MAKE include detailed manufacturability concerns along with recommendations for improvement. A pilot software tool was developed to guide the assessor through the process. A discussion of this methodology within the context of a defense industry case study is presented, along with lessons learned and recommendations.