Could this happen to you? – Product developments hiding in plain sight

Design For Manufacturing in its simplest form asks for you to understand the manufacturing processes and apply that understanding to your designs. Let’s not over-complicate it just yet with tools and software and cost analysis – just design your products giving consideration to the manufacturing processes you are going to use to make them.

That sounds so obvious, most people would assume it happens automatically, without conscious effort (and it should). However silo culture between the Engineering Design and Manufacturing departments creates a filter in the flow of information that is thought to be necessary for effective design for manufacturing. This filter allows enough through to let everyone believe they are doing the right thing but it is actually blocking potential for substantial design improvements. This information filter is rarely noticed until someone points it out.

Watch this video to see an example of how we removed that filter for a company and opened the door for them to make major design improvements.