MANUFACTURABILITY ASSESSMENT KNOWLEDGE-BASED EVALUATION (MAKE) AND A PILOT CASE STUDY

• Published in: Proceedings of the International Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Management pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: McCall, Tonya G, Fuller, Sara C, Dalton, Larry G, Walden, Clayton T
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Huntsville American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM) 01.01.2017
• Subjects: Case studies; Components industry; Concurrent engineering; Costs; Defense industry; Design analysis; Design for manufacturability; Design modifications; Engineering research; Engineering schools; Industrial engineering; Knowledge bases (artificial intelligence); Life cycle costs; Life cycle engineering; Manufacturability; Manufacturing; Product design; Product development; Product life cycle; Production costs; Quality; R&D; Research & development; Software; Software development tools; Taxonomy; Tooling; Mississippi; United States > US

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 life cycle costs is 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 product 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.