Source: DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURABILITY HANDBOOK

CHAPTER 9.4

GLOSSARY OF TERMS*

The following terms describe management systems that are either part of DFM or DFX, related to them, or provide alternative means of improving product designs and manufacturing operations.
Benchmarking A systematic process for evaluating the products, services and work processes of organizations that are recognized as representing best practices.3 The objective of the study is to gain information that leads to improvements in the organization making the study. Almost any organizational activity can be the subject of a benchmark study. Both broad functional areas such as quality control, service, manufacturing, etc., and narrow factors within them such as the method used for a specific operation, production yields, mean time to failure of products, cycle times, sales territory assignments, etc., can be covered. Comparison studies can be made of different branches of an organization, of competitors, and of a company unrelated to the one making the study but one that performs some function in an outstanding manner. Concurrent design Another name for concurrent engineering.

Concurrent engineering The approach that brings both design and manufacturing engineers together during the design phase (often along with product managers, quality controllers, production people, and others). The product, the manufacturing process, and supporting activities are engineered at the same time. This facilitates DFM and speeds the product-realization cycle. The use of DFM tends to promote and facilitate concurrent engineering because the product designers, who are seldom expert in manufacturing constraints, need to work hand in hand with manufacturing engineers to ensure that their designs are optimally manufacturable. Continuous improvement A philosophy that is inherent in a number of currently used management approaches such as TQM (total quality management). It emphasizes that industrial competitiveness does not come from one or a few massive improvements that simply have to be maintained after implementation. Rather, competitiveness is better served by the installation of a series of improvements that may be incremental but which are part of an improvement process that is ongoing. Controlled-experiment method A test method applicable when there are a number of variables, all of which have some effect on the process or product being studied. This approach allows all the variables to be evaluated at one time. Design of experiments (DOE), factorial experiments, directed experimentation, orthogonal arrays, and statistically designed experiments are all terms for essentially the same approach. By mathematical analysis of test results, the person making the tests determines which setting of each variable is optimal. The number of test runs needed for full optimization is greatly reduced compared with the traditional method in which the variables are tested one at a time while other variables are held constant.

*Adapted from various chapters of Design for Excellence, by James G. Bralla, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1996.

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS* 9.30 ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENTS

DFA, design for assembly This is an important product design approach whose objective is to simplify the product and its overall assembly. A reduction in parts count is the hallmark of successful DFA. (See Chap. 7.1.) DFM, design for manufacturability In the broadest sense, DFM includes any step, method, or system that provides a product design that eases the task of manufacturing and lowers manufacturing cost. In a somewhat more specific sense, DFM is primarily a knowledge-based technique that invokes a series of guidelines, principles, recommendations, or rules-of-thumb for designing a product so that it is easy to make. These guidelines tend to aid many common product attributesproper function, reliability, good appearance, serviceability, etc.but their primary objective is to improve manufacturability. DFX (See Chap. 9.3.)

Design to cost This includes design efforts to reduce operating, maintenance, and manufacturing or acquisition costs of a product.1 It utilizes a variety of analytical and goal-setting and control methods to achieve this, including value analysis, cost estimating, design simplification, work simplification, pareto analysis, etc.7 Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) This is a quality analysis technique useful in improving product designs and manufacturing processes by eliminating or minimizing existing and potential quality problems. The approach prioritizes problems by considering the seriousness of the problem, its frequency, and the probability of its being undiscovered. The combined effect of these three factors determines the priority of corrective action.6 Fractional factorial experiments These are controlled experiments in which not all levels of all variables are tested in combination with all levels of all other variables. A sample, or fraction, of all theoretical combinations is tested. This approach is taken when a full series of factorial experiments would require a prohibitively large number of test runs.4 Group technology This is a production arrangement wherein parts are grouped together into families with similar characteristics, and production equipment is laid out in the sequence needed for the parts to progress from operation to operation with minimum transport distance. The production unit for the parts family is then self-contained and is sometimes called a cell. This differs from the traditional job-shop factory layout, in which equipment of each type is grouped together in various departments and each part moves from department to department for processing. The advantage of group technology is much reduced throughput time, simpler production control, reduced materials handling, and better operator understanding of quality requirements. Life-cycle costs These are all the costs involved not only in the manufacture and distribution of a product but also in its ownership, its operation, and its disposal at the end of its useful life. Service and repair costs, warranty costs, energy costs for operation, and medical costs of persons injured by it, if any, are included. Costs borne by persons other than the buyer or user of the product are included, as are costs to the general public for environmental damage, etc. Manufacturability This is the ease with which a product or part can be produced.

Producibility This is another term for manufacturability. With some practitioners, the term refers only to the ease of manufacture of parts and components rather than to assemblies of them. Quality function deployment (QFD) This is a systematic approach for improving product quality by concentrating on what the customer wants and will continue to buy in the product. The approach utilizes the skills within the organization on a team basis to design, manufacture, and market products that incorporate the customers desires.5 Quality loss function A Taguchi concept, this is the relationship between undesired variations in some characteristic of a product and the financial loss that is borne by society as a result of it.

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS* GLOSSARY OF TERMS 9.31

Societys financial loss includes the cost of service, repair, warranty, lost goodwill, etc.2 (See Life-cycle costs above.) The greater the deviation in a quality characteristic, the greater is the financial loss. Simultaneous engineering Another name that has been given to concurrent engineering.

Statistical process control (SPC) This is a form of quality control that uses statistical methods to help control dimensions and other characteristics of manufactured products and their components. Its purpose is to ensure that variations in dimensions and other characteristics are random rather than due to some correctable process flaw and that they remain within acceptable limits so that the products quality is ensured. Synchronized manufacturing A system of manufacturing advocated by Eliyahu Goldratt.8 It involves small lots of production, run on as continuous a basis as possible by supplementing bottleneck operations where necessary, balancing production to customers orders, and avoiding stocking of work-in-process. When implemented, it may greatly reduce factory throughput time, providing both customer service and manufacturing advantages. Total quality management (TQM) A managerial approach that emphasizes product and service quality improvement. Its elements include full company organizational involvement in promoting quality, quality measurement, and a focus on customers wants, the use of teams, thorough training, and continuous improvement. Value analysis This involves a systematic review of cost of producing a component or product compared with the value it provides. The objective is to increase or maintain its value while reducing its manufacturing cost. Value engineering This involves value analysis applied during the design phase of a product rather than after the product has gone into production.

REFERENCES
1. Marvin A. Moss, Designing for Minimal Maintenance Expense, Marcel Dekker, New York, 1985. 2. Steven Ashley, Applying Taguchis Quality Engineering to Technology Development, Mechanical Engineering, July 1992. 3. Michael J. Spendolini, The Benchmarking Book, Amacon Division of American Management Association, New York, 1992. 4. George Box and Soren Bisgaard, The Scientific Context of Quality Improvement, technical paper, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 1987. 5. John Hauser and Don Clausing, The House of Quality, Harvard Business Review, MayJune 1988. 6. S. Choka, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, IBM internal paper, 1992. 7. Jack V. Michaels and William P. Wood, Design to Cost, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1989. 8. E. M. Goldratt and J. Cox, The Goal, North River Press, Croton-on-Hudson, NY, 1986.

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS*

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