In manufacturing, during the product development process, the design in particular can be key to a project’s success. The product not only needs to be functional but generally must look good too. This is where the expertise of an experienced design engineer is relied upon to aid a product’s journey, which begins as a concept design, changes into a physical prototype, and makes its way onto the assembly line conveyor and eventually out of the factory.
New product development is happening all the time to either compete with other options on the market from industry competitors or by keeping pace with servicing customers’ developing needs. But it is the role of a design engineer to design a product or component that is both innovative and practical. Known as the Design for Manufacturing (DFM) concept, and predominantly associated with mass-produced items, the main goal of a designer is to design something that is more easily produced and therefore the overall cost of manufacture is reduced. Thus, DFM can be said to force innovation through new solutions, alternative materials, or by reducing the number of components required, for example.
DFM can be regarded as being more important than it has ever been, given we are in the middle of a cost of living crisis. With skyrocketing costs, especially prevalent in the areas of raw materials and paying for energy used to physically produce an item in order to get it on the conveyor again.
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