🚀 go-pugleaf

Dan O'Leary wrote...

>As we switch to short cycle time - low inventory manufacturing, we need to
>make sure the design process accommodates the manufacturing needs. This is
>traditionally called Design for Assembly (DFA) or Design for Manufacturing
>(DFM).
>
>Rochester Institute of Technology is offering a course in DFA/DFM based on
>the Boothroyd-Dewhurst methodology. Is this a good methodology to adopt in
>this area?
>
>If not, what would be a better one?

This is not really an answer to the specific question, but a suggestion
to consider another aspect of the design and manufacturing environment --
the need for speed as well as quality. I fully agree with the need to be
able to design the right thing and design it right for assembly or
manufacturing, but there is a time aspect as well.

One thing you might also want to keep in mind is that as you "switch to
short cycle time," you'll be wanting, more and more, to capitalize on the
time-based competition that low inventory manufacturing allows. One thing
that many organizations find out is that as they reduce manufacturing
cycle time drastically (typicaly by around 50% for those who use the
Drum-Buffer-Rope approach to low-inventory production management), the
proportion of time to design becomes a larger component of the firms
ability to respond to customer needs..

The constraint in the firm's ability to improve delivery performance
shifts from manufacturing to engineering...from the way production is
managed to the way projects are managed. The interesting thing is that
the same way that the key to production speed and reliability in
low-inventory manufacturing is the management of constraints and
bottlenecks, multi-project environments also benefit from a similar
philosophy. If total speed and responsiveness of such a system is
important to the the firm's success, then it behooves one to make sure
that the appropriate constraint is being addressed.

Another aspect of this is that the biggest enemy of quality is time. Too
often, design quality is compromised by time requirements that prove to
be artificial. Sturcturing projects so that what is important (important
does not include intermediate task due dates) is what the project is
based on allows appropriate attention to quality without jeopardizing
overall project cycle time.

As organizations shift to time-based competition, project management
methodologies can become as important as production management in the
effort to improve capabilities and capacities. Indeed, in custom
manufacturing environments that make to order rather than to stock, it
would be better to think of the whole system as a multi-project
environment rather than a bunch of functions/process supporting a
maufacturing environment


 -- Frank Patrick

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Francis S. "Frank" Patrick              http://www.focusedperformance.com

 Focused Performance - Management Consulting & Training
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 planning is indispensable." --- Dwight D. Eisenhower
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