DFMPro Blog

Affordable Innovation in the High-Tech Industry with Upfront Design for Manufacturing (DFM)

2015-09-11T15:19:00.002+01:00

Challenges in High-Tech Industry

Driving costs out of the product lifecycle is on the top of every company’s agenda in the high-tech industry. High-tech industry original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who design and market products like computer equipment, networking and telecommunication equipment, medical devices, consumer electronics, etc. are continually working towards becoming more cost-efficient to remain profitable as global competition and new innovations are driving prices down steeply. Companies constantly strive to deliver innovative products at affordable prices as it is a strong source of differentiation in this competitive market environment.

Improving efficiencies in product design and supply chain

Thin margins and shorter product lifecycles mean there is little room for design inefficiencies and iterations. Any kind of rework, quality issues, or inefficiencies in design and manufacturing can further increase the cost of production and impact profitability. As contract manufacturing increases, it is imperative to limit rework and ensure maximum efficiency across the supply chain to control costs. This becomes even more relevant for large global high-tech OEMs whose design and R&D teams are based in countries across North America and Europe with contract manufacturing suppliers spread across Asia-Pacific. Designs that require multiple iterations between supplier and OEM will often lead to delays in production schedule and increase overall costs. In our experience working with high-tech companies we have learnt that major causes of production delays and cost overruns are due to late design changes occurring because of manufacturability issues identified on the supplier side. Issues related to producibility, standardization, and assembly are frequently reported late either during design reviews or when designs are sent to suppliers for manufacturing, leading to rework and delays.

There are numerous designs produced by OEMs worldwide on a continuous basis. If designers are aware of which design parameters will be amenable to downstream manufacturing and assembly processes then late engineering changes and rework can be minimized. However, with several facilities and multiple suppliers across the globe, it is impossible to have knowledge of all manufacturing standards and supplier best practices that should be followed during the design stage.
In this example part shown below, how do you ensure that these issues get detected early during the design stage? These are typical DFM errors seen in an electronic part or assembly:

Draft Angles on plastic enclosures are not sufficient. Insufficient draft results in problems during ejection of the part from the mold. Corrects drafts improve the cycle time and productivity as well.

3D Model Actual Part
Bosses are designed without sufficient radii at their base. The bosses are subjected to stress which can be reduced by adding radii at the bottom as well as the top.

3D Model Actual Part
- Ribs are fundamental features on high tech parts and incorrect rib height or thickness can lead affect the structural integrity of the parts.
  
  CAD Model Actual Part
In case of assemblies, issues with clearance and interference are critical to address during the design stage before it is sent for manufacturing. For example:
- Minimum clearance between components is not sufficient. The right minimum clearance is required to prevent overheating and to allow for expansion of certain components during operation.
- Interference is detected between components in a complex assembly which is not desirable from a functional point of view.

These errors could have been avoided by implementing a formal DFM process or by involving the supplier during the early design stage. The Hi-tech industry is looking for solutions to capture their supplier knowledge and make it available to their designers early in the design process. Currently, DFM is dependent on tribal knowledge and feedback from suppliers, resulting in late engineering changes.

DFM Knowledge capture and dissemination through rule based framework

In the global scenario, an efficient way to perform DFM during the early design stage is through a rule-based framework founded on a specific manufacturing facility or supplier capabilities. For example, using DFM software, manufacturing capabilities and supplier standards from all global locations can be made available to all designers in the form of rules, methods, and guidelines, focused on a specific manufacturing facility or supplier where the product is to be manufactured. The designer can optimize the design based on manufacturing process knowledge of that particular facility or supplier and ensure that part or product is manufactured right the first time with minimal engineering changes.
DFM Software:

Capture the manufacturing capabilities and supplier standards from all global locations in a central knowledgebase
Automates the DFM review process in the form of rules, methods, and guidelines during the design stage
Optimizes part manufacturability based on the factory-specific manufacturing checks

Whether you are an OEM, contract manufacturer or a designer of high-tech products, you should have the right information available to make “early choices” during the design stage. These intelligent decisions made during product design can help foster more affordable innovation and win market share.

Engineering Efficiency: How to Get More For Less

2015-07-28T13:15:00.004+01:00

With hundreds of new automotive models scheduled to launch over the next decade, automotive manufacturers, from OEMs to suppliers are striving to streamline design and engineering to speed up new launches and keep up with the growing demand. The 2013 IHS automotive Global Light Vehicle (LV) forecast anticipates total global LV sales will increase at a CAGR of 3.9%, reaching 106.7 million by 2020.

What’s more, given the unprecedented launch activity surge in every industry, engineering resources are in high demand worldwide, significantly impacting R&D resource requirements in every industry. As a result, the ability to launch products quickly and cost effectively has never been more important but also never more challenging for R&D teams.

Facing the lament of reducing product life cycles as well as resource shortage, R&D is left with one choice: To improve engineering efficiency. They are tasked to aggressively improve the efficiency, reduce the rework and minimize repetitive tasks – often consuming most of their time.

Rework is probably the biggest cause of waste in the engineering process.At least 30% of product development time and effort is spent on “rework” though Engineering Changes coming from various downstream stages of product development. The Engineering Changes originating in later stages of product lifecycle are very expensive leading to delayed product launch and cost over-runs.

Figure 1 depicts a typical cost of design change curve for a new product design program. As you can see the cost of design changes increases exponentially as we go further in the product development lifecycle

As per our estimates, average cost of engineering change in the automotive industry can be in the range of $4000-$6000, if detected at the early design stage. A change of this scope is easier to fix at this stage, as you can do a bit of redesign and remodeling and fix it. Furthermore, if you find an error during the testing stage, where most of the errors are detected, it takes almost $40k to $ 60k to fix. As a general thumb rule the cost of making design changes increases by a factor of ten at each step of the product development process.

Finally, if the error gets past you into production or product has gone to market, then cost not only increases 100 times, but it can also have dire consequences in the form of costly product recalls , delays and loss of confidence amongst customers and shareholders, which is hard to quantify. Therefore, it is clear from Figure 1 that fixing errors is much more expensive and time-consuming the farther it is along it is in the product development life cycle. So the question becomes, what’s the best way to avoid changes occurring later in the product cycle?

Build efficient design and engineering process to cut down iterations

Transformations in engineering process is instrumental in eliminating waste and reducing engineering changes. Decisions made in early design stage are responsible for most of the late-stage engineering changes. Though few changes are unavoidable and arise due to factors completely outside the control of the organization like change in regulations and customer needs. However, the remaining changes can be attributed under “preventable” category which can be addressed at the early stage of product development.

Shifting from a reactive to proactive approach where designer engineers can upfront verify the impact of design decisions and identify downstream issues as early as possible in the lifecycle process can significantly reduce engineering changes and maximize efficiency.

Our estimates show that by taking this approach, engineering productivity can be improved by 5%-15% and rework can be reduced by 6% -12% along with savings in overall cost and improved time to market.

Rework in Product Engineering- An Infographic

2015-07-28T13:13:00.002+01:00

Engineering organization in almost all industries are dealing with costly and time-consuming design changes occurring at later stages of product development. As per our estimates at least 30%-50% of design time and effort is spent on “rework” though these Engineering Changes.

Though some design changes are unavoidable and arise due to disruptive factors outside the control of the organization such as stricter regulations and design norms, changing customer needs or product price reduction strategies etc. The remaining issues fall under completely preventable category. This info graphic helps to explain a bit about the possible causes of rework in product engineering that can be prevented and its impact on overall design time.

Learn how DFMPro® supports the Future of Manufacturing

2015-07-28T13:11:00.004+01:00

Additive manufacturing technologies are creating a world of possibilities taking organizations in an entirely new direction and helping them rethink new approach towards product design and development.

Designers and manufacturing engineers are extending their capabilities as additive manufacturing offers higher design freedom and open doors to highly complex, geometric shapes and features, which otherwise would require expensive tooling to produce or even impossible to manufacture using conventional manufacturing processes. With a growing number of parts manufactured by additive manufacturing techniques, it is also important to lay down design principles suitable for such manufacturing processes as complex design features pose newer challenges downstream. Design for additive manufacturing requires multiple iterations and the availability of expertise is also limited at present. General design rules should be considered at the design stage for effective manufacturing of parts using additive manufacturing. For example some checks such as –

Maximum part size check – The maximum size of parts is generally constrained by the additive machines available for manufacturing. If the part is of bigger size than the allowable machine capacity, then it has to be redesigned to fit the machine. Hence it is important to know the maximum allowable size while designing the part.

Minimum wall thickness check – The minimum wall thickness of a part is generally constrained by the additive manufacturing method, machine resolution, etc. Very thin walls could make the part very fragile and hence it is important to check and maintain minimum distance between generic pockets (Hole/cutout/pocket) and minimum distance from edge to generic pockets to provide sufficient strength and rigidity to the part.

Eliminate Features requiring support – As additive manufacturing methods build the part layer by layer, some designs might require additional support due to the nature of additive manufacturing. Features such as negative drafts, overhangs and undercuts should be avoided wherever possible, as they require supports which increases the weight of part.

These and many other rules should be considered during additive manufacturing part designs. So does it mean that all the designs have to be validated manually for these design rules? Although the design rules might appear simple, verifying all these rules manually in 3D models is very difficult and time consuming.

DFMPro® is keeping pace with next generation manufacturing processes to provide an automated and standardized approach. This will help designers to verify designs for additive manufacturing process and design effectively with minimal iterations and mistakes.

DFMPro is a powerful CAD integrated Design for Manufacturing & Assembly solution, which facilitates upstream manufacturability validation and identification of areas of a design that are difficult, expensive or impossible to manufacture. It supports various processes such as injection molding, casting, sheet metal fabrication, machining, tubing, sand casting and assembly.

The latest version 4.0 of DFMPro provides users much greater flexibility to design products for advanced processes like additive manufacturing, tubing to significantly reduce engineering change orders (ECOs) by getting their designs right the first time.

A quick way to get designs ready for Machining

2015-07-28T13:04:00.002+01:00

A design engineer’s praxis in designing a product has undergone a great change in this decade. Earlier, designers were only responsible for functional requirements of the product but now they have a greater role to play in an organization – to design products which not only satisfy functional requirements but also manufacturability requirements by way of keeping product cost within the budgetary constraints and delivering innovative solutions to customers.

Functional requirements, especially for machining, translate into product design features like slots, pockets, holes, islands, grooves, profiles, etc. Design engineers have to select such features based on their prior experiences or guidelines / standards. However, when it comes to understanding downstream manufacturing capability, the knowledge is often in ‘tacit’ form. Designers have an uphill struggle in accessing this knowledge. Thus, at times the feature they add in their design is either not manufacturable or is difficult, and expensive or takes longer time to manufacture. In this case, designers may end up spending hours in design reviews with the manufacturing department or suppliers and would also have to spend considerable time in rework leading to poor design throughput. Hence, it is important that design engineers should have access to all the required downstream capability knowledge base.

Geometric’s DFMPro takes all this into consideration and capacitates design engineers to access this knowledge base, so that ‘informed decisions’ based on standards and downstream requirements can be taken. This saves a lot of effort and also ensures that design release timelines will be met and ECO/ECN instances will be reduced.
Machining guidelines for milling cutter radius:

For designing a milled component, it is important for a design engineer to understand what cutter sizes are available with internal manufacturing or with suppliers. This is important because if the required radius is not available with the machine shop, it would lead to additional investment in buying a new cutter or at times selecting a smaller cutter which would increase the production time drastically. This becomes more important for smaller pocket radius.

In the image depicted above, the design engineer created a pocket with side radius of 10 mm. General guideline for cutter selection is as below:

“Side Radius to Cutter Radius should be between 1.1 to 1.25.”

It means that a milling cutter with radius between 8.0 to 9.0 mm should be used for milling the side radius. DFMPro can check for appropriateness of side radii based on available cutters. By configuring cutter database within DFMPro, it will check whether such a cutter is available as per the mentioned range. If the milling cutter is available as per the range, then the analysis will pass and the radius would be acceptable. If not, the analysis will fail and DFMPro will suggest the next nearest milling cutter radius tool that needs to be considered based on this, the design engineer is suggested to modify the side radius value.

For example, if a cutter is not available with radius between 8.0 to 9.0 mm, then DFMPro will automatically find out the next nearest cutter radius e.g. 9.5 mm radius tool available in database. Using this nearest cutter radius, it will find the actual side radius value which needs to be provided on the pocket/slot feature. E.g. 10.45 mm to 11.875 mm side radius needs to be provided in this case. It is normally convenient for a design engineer to modify the side radius rather than using a non-standard milling cutter with additional cost.

This way DFMPro can help design engineers by way of providing better understanding of manufacturing requirements at the right time – that is, when the design is being created. It further promotes better collaboration of design with manufacturing and captures the right understanding of supplier capability to design parts the very first time. This drastically reduces the review time and avoids rework in design. For the downstream departments, it helps reduce manufacturing time and avoid issues like tool breakage due to wrong cutter selection.

3D Printing – A panacea to all manufacturing problems? Not exactly!

2013-07-08T19:24:00.002+01:00

3D printing has taken the world by storm. 3D Printing has become a more popular terminology these days for additive manufacturing process. Additive manufacturing process has been in existence for a few decades now and focused mainly for developing rapid prototypes of parts. With the advancement of technology, the additive printing machines have become much smaller and portable, which has helped it gain much popularity. There are hobby ‘3D printers’ available from several manufacturers now which can be connected to desktop computers and user can print parts just as they print a document. Sounds so simple, isn’t it?

Additive manufacturing is a process which slices the geometry of the part into layers and then builds it layer by layer. So it is radically different from the conventional manufacturing processes involving removal of material. The user is able to print complex shapes using additive manufacturing which otherwise would require expensive tooling to produce or even impossible to manufacture using conventional manufacturing processes. People have been talking about printing an entire aeroplane using 3D printing. Also, in medical science, there are predictions that 3D printers will be able to print human organs using stem cells as the input material!

Does it mean that all you ever knew about manufacturing is about to change forever? Nope.

The accuracy of the parts printed using 3D printers depends upon geometry of part and operator expertise. The parts often require finishing operations after printing to achieve the required accuracy. There are two major reasons for this. One is that the user needs to fine tune the printer settings for the part to be printed. It needs a lot of trial & error in using the printer for printing various shapes. The geometry of the part is a critical factor in determining accuracy and quality of finish of the printed part. There are some design criteria followed in conventional manufacturing process which need to be followed for parts to be 3D printed as well. If the part has features such as thin wall cross sections, negative draft , the part cannot be printed properly. Attempt to print such parts result in defective or damaged parts which leads to loss of material, time and money. Hence it is essential to validate the part design to check if the part can be printed using 3D printing.

3D printing is surely the future of manufacturing. But when it comes to product design, conventional best practices will still continue to exist. Some of them apply directly while some need to be tweaked for 3D printing process.

Let us look at some of the design rules which can help make parts 3D printing friendly in the next blog.

DFMPro on CADInsider

2013-06-28T07:12:00.002+01:00

Do read this -

http://cadinsider.typepad.com/my_weblog/2013/06/dfmpro-puts-manufacturing-experience-in-a-box.html

More details on our experiences at Siemens PLM Connection and PTC Live to follow.....

Leveraging The Power of DFM

2012-08-23T13:26:00.001+01:00

Leveraging the Power of DFM

2012-07-18T06:00:00.002+01:00

DFMPro @ Siemens PLM Connection UK & Ireland 2012

DFMPro for NX manufacturability checks within Check-mate

DFMPro for NX Introduction

Checkmate Report

DFMPro - Injection Molding

Thread Engagement and Design Validation

2012-02-22T03:11:00.001+00:00

Recently found this article on the web --
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1365&cid=NL%5FNewsletters+%2D+DN+Daily&doc_id=239122&page_number=2&piddl_msgpage=2#msgs

"Designing joints with the proper thread engagement length can help ensure that threads don't strip or yield. This can prevent parts from failing on the assembly line or in service"

This falls right into the DFM/A area and re-emphasises the need to check designs against standard guidelines as early as possible. The benefit of doing things right the first time is derived not only for manufacturing / assembly but also during service.

Again, this is not applicable only at the part level but also at the assembly level where things get a little more complex. For assemblies, stuff like clearance, fastener engagement, fastener accessibility, interference, bolt projection are critical. I bet while reading this you can think of a lot more depending on your products.

The problem till now was that it is humanly impossible to keep track of all these checks manually. This is exactly where DFMPro helps in automating the design validation process against guidelines and other checks which are simple to define but difficult to implement primarily due to the error-prone nature of a manual process.

DFMPro helps check designs easily and quickly right within the CAD environment thus helping achieve not only better quality but also reduced cost and improved time to market.

Understanding Critical Aspects of Plastic Part Design and Manufacturing

2011-10-10T08:25:00.000+01:00

Understanding Critical Aspects of Plastic Part Design and Manufacturing

Plastic parts are essential components of most of the industries starting from Automotive to hi-tech electronics and household products from toys to kitchen appliances. Plastic is possibly the most versatile and economical material used in many applications. Developing plastic products in the shortest possible time at the right cost and quality gives organizations a definitive edge over their competitors. Therefore, manufacturers across the globe pay special attention to the time spent in bringing a new product/variant to the market. Optimizing this process right from the design stage has a domino effect on the entire lifecycle. Design decisions taken early in the cycle affect not only the cost of the product but also contribute to its quality and life-span.

However it is important to understand the critical design parameters while designing plastic components –

 Wall thickness

 Undercuts

 Ribs

 Bosses

 Drafts

 Holes

 Radii and many more critical areas

Join us for a webinar, to understand the in-depth design aspects of plastic products.

Speakers:

Paul A. Tres, founder - Engineering Training Services, bestselling author and an international speaker on plastic product development and design having years of experience in design, marketing, selling and manufacture of plastic components and system. Mr. Tres offers a broad perspective of the plastic industry in general and to the plastic marketing, manufacturing, material selection, and part design in special. He will explain the best design practices in detail with examples and case studies.

Nikhil Dalvi, Strategic Account Manager, Geometric, who will demonstrate the advance CAD based technology to ensure producible injection molding design. You will also understand how this advanced technology can simplify life of a design and manufacturing engineer and help to reduce downstream manufacturing problems and improve productivity.

So join us and take advantage of this one-of-kind opportunity to hear, interact and understand how progressive companies are leveraging these best plastic design practices to their advantage.

20 Oct, 2011 08:00 AM PST/PDT i.e 10:00 AM CST/CDT i.e 11:30 AM EST/EDT i.e 17:30 PM CET (EU)

Registration link : https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/413874200

Geometric Receives Frost & Sullivan’s 2011 Global Enabling Technology Award for DFMPro

2011-08-25T06:39:00.002+01:00

DFMPro recognized for technological innovation in ‘design for manufacturing’ validation Mumbai, India, August 23, 2011: Geometric Limited (BSE: 532312, NSE: GEOMETRIC), a leader in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Global Engineering Services, and Offshore Product Development (OPD) solutions and technologies, today announced that it has received the prestigious 2011 Global Enabling Technology Award for Computer Aided Design (CAD) from the leading independent research consultancy, Frost & Sullivan. This award was conferred on Geometric’s DFMPro, a CAD integrated product, for its ability to facilitate upstream design validation for manufacturability, by providing an automated design review process and employing a standard operating procedure for knowledge capture and reuse.

“The advent of advanced authoring and design tools allows designer engineers to explore effective and efficient design alternatives. However, design engineers have not been able to maximise this potential due to the challenges in translating these designs into manufacture-able products. A product like DFMPro, which validates the manufacturability of designs right at the design stage, helps address this issue, and eliminates manufacturability concerns of any design”, said Muthukumar Viswanathan, Practice Director, Frost & Sullivan.

Geometric’s design for manufacturability solution was evaluated based on its ability to enhance current products, its potential for market acceptance, delivery of technology to market, and its end-user transition and recognition.

On receiving the award, Mr. Manu Parpia, MD & CEO, Geometric said, “Geometric has been developing products in the geometry domain for over two decades. We launched DFMPro in 2008 to help manufacturing companies reduce costs by identifying designs that are difficult, expensive or impossible to manufacture. We continue to improve the product over the years by covering more processes, manufacturability rules and checks. Frost & Sullivan’s award is a recognition of the contribution Geometric can make to help manufacturing companies compete”.

DFMPro is currently available for machining (drilling, prismatic milling, and lathe machining/ turning), sheet metal fabrication, injection molding, and assembly. Viswanathan added, “The seamless integration of DFMPro with leading CAD platforms makes it easy to use. This automation of a traditionally manual process helps reduce design iterations, cost of design and time-to-market. In most cases, DFMPro has been known to reduce time by more than 50 percent.”

DFMPro has a proven track record with customers in various industries. One such company is Motorola Solutions Inc. The company’s Director of Mechanical Engineering Services, Mr. Vikram Bhargava said, “Congratulations to the DFMPro team for winning this accolade. We have been using DFMPro for our design validations and are impressed by its intuitiveness, seamless integration within our CAD platform and the ability to customize design rules. DFMPro has helped us improve design and reduce downstream issues.”

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

For online demo and to understand the product in detail, please visit www.dfmpro.com.

About Frost & Sullivan:
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents.

About Geometric:
Geometric is a specialist in the domain of engineering solutions, services and technologies. Its portfolio of Global Engineering services and Digital Technology solutions for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) enables companies to formulate, implement, and execute global engineering and manufacturing strategies aimed at achieving greater efficiencies in the product realization lifecycle. Headquartered in Mumbai, India, Geometric was incorporated in 1994 and is listed on the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges. The company recorded consolidated revenues of Rupees 6.21 billion (US Dollars 136.47 million) for the year ended March 2011. It employs over 3900 people across 10 global delivery locations in the US, Romania, India, and China. Geometric was assessed as CMMI 1.1 Level 5 for its software services and is ISO 9001:2008 certified for engineering operations. The company’s operations are also ISO 27001:2005 certified.

Geometric’s Geometry Technology Solutions (GTS) business unit develops cutting-edge point productivity solutions that enhance design and improve manufacturing operations. The end-user products from Geometric include CAMWorks®, eDrawings® Publisher, DFMPro, GeomCaliper® and 3DPaintBrush™. The key technologies from Geometric are NestLib®, Feature Recognition (FR), GeomDiff and 3DSearchIT®. Geometric licenses these technologies to OEM partners and also designs and implements customized process solutions using these technologies for industrial customers. For further details about Geometric’s GTS business unit, please visit www.geometricglobal.com/products
or call +1.480.222.2255

DFMPro at PlanetPTC Live 2011, Las Vegas

2011-06-21T06:05:00.001+01:00

Our Customer - Paul Lalinde from Motorola

Motorola Presentation on DFMPro

Live Demo

DFMPro 3.0 to be showcased at PlanetPTC Live 2011

2011-05-18T05:01:00.000+01:00

Geometric to showcase DFMPro 3.0 at PlanetPTC Live 2011

See live demonstrations of new additions to the product -- multiple, quick and precise clearance checks at the click of a button, intuitive hole alignment checks and a lot more.

Visit Booth #510, at PlanetPTC Live, from 12-15 June, 2011 at the Caesars Palace Las Vegas Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Read more here --
http://www.geometricglobal.com/images/file/Geometric_Media_Release_DFMPro_PTCPlanet_May_17_2011.pdf

Motorola Solutions to present its experience with DFMPro at PlanetPTC Live 2011

2011-05-18T04:48:00.002+01:00

Mr. Paul Lalinde from Motorola Solutions will be presenting on the topic of ‘Automating
Manufacturability checks with DFMPro’ during the partner track session at 11:00 AM on June 14, 2011 in the Octavius 20 room. Mr. Lalinde will share his experiences on the various challenges faced by Motorola Solutions in the area of DFM, the measures he took to address some of those problems, and how DFMPro helped automate the process.

Read more at http://www.geometricglobal.com/images/file/Geometric_Media_Release_DFMPro_PTCPlanet_May_17_2011.pdf

Medical Equipment - Accelerate design to manufacture process & reduce product cost Part2

2011-05-06T17:25:00.000+01:00

2011-04-25T14:25:00.000+01:00

Medical Equipment

Accelerate design to manufacture process & reduce product cost

In today’s market environment, cost & cycle time reduction are constant endeavors. One of the critical phases which has significant impact on cost & cycle time is design to manufacture phase.

This phase is inherently iterative as it tries to achieve multi objective optimization and involves collaboration with cross functional stake holders (for e.g. Manufacturing Engineering). These iterative cycles get exponentially costly as they go closer to final production phase.

Geometric has developed a unique Design For Manufacturability (DFM) solution which helps organization reduce design iterations, improve organization productivity & collaboration. It is a tool which provides upfront verification of parts for Manufacturability during design stage. It also helps designers make product cost decision by identifying areas of design that are difficult, expensive or impossible to manufacture.

DFMPro benefits:

· Improve design productivity

· Ensure Assured quality

· Reduce cost

· Capture knowledge

· Collaborate design

Join us for a live and interactive webinar to discover how you can reduce time and cost by addressing manufacturability problems right at design stage.

Register Here

Webinar Topic :	Accelerate Design to manufacture process & Reduce product cost
Date :	Wednesday, 4^th May 2011
Time :	8:00 am (PST), 10:00 am (CST), 11:00 am (EST)
Speakers :	Rahul Rajadhyaksha (Product Manager, DFMPro, Geometric) Vivek Khare (Director Business Operations, Geometric)

You can also click on following link to register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/738784193

Know anyone else who would be interested in this webinar? Attendance is free so simply forward this message on to them.

About Geometric

Geometric (www.geometricglobal.com) is a specialist in the domain of engineering solutions, services and technologies. Its portfolio
of Global Engineering services and Digital Technology solutions for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) enables companies to
formulate, implement, and execute global engineering and manufacturing strategies aimed at achieving greater efficiencies in the
product realization lifecycle.

The copyright/ trademarks of all products referenced herein are held by their respective companies.

Reducing Design to manufacturing iterations

2011-04-21T20:43:00.000+01:00

Want to know how to reduce design to manufacturing iterations?

Check out his 2 min video.

http://bit.ly/dfmpro-proe

DFMPro @ SWW 2011

2011-02-07T08:30:00.001+00:00

Thank you for visiting DFMPro booth at SolidWorks World 2011.

DFMPro - The new Castings Module!

2011-02-02T09:29:00.000+00:00

DFMPro Castings Module in SolidWorks ( Sneak Peek )

Full featured demo will be avalable soon!

New Rules!

1) Wall thickness variation
2) Minimum Draft Angle
3) Fillet Radius
4) Hole Distance to part edge
5) Surace finish
6) Mold wall thickness .... and many more!

Geometric to unveil DFMPro for Solidworks with new features during Solidworks world 2011

2011-01-13T08:34:00.002+00:00

DFMPro for SolidWorks focuses on improving ease of DFM(Design for Manufacturing) analysis and reporting by providing the following new functions: Casting module with built-in rules including thickness checks, draft angle checks and tolerance checks. These easy-to-configure and easy-to-use checks will help designers quickly check and refine their designs to avoid possible problems during casting. The SolidWorks version of DFMPro now supports the Microsoft Excel based DFM analysis report
The new casting module broadens the scope of out-of-the-box manufacturing checks provided by DFMPro. The Excel-based reports combined with eDrawings reports facilitate easy collaboration, communication and tracking of DFM issues to closure. For more information on DFMPro, please visit
http://dfmpro.com

DFMPro version 2.3 to be showcased during IMTEX 2011, Bangalore(Bengaluru), India

2011-01-11T07:26:00.000+00:00

Geometric will showcase DFMPro version 2.3 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Center in Bangalore, India.

DFMPro version 2.3 focuses on improving the ease of DFM review comments to closure with support for formed features and inclusion of Microsoft Excel based DFM analysis reports. A new grouping functionality for wall thickness related rules has been added in the Injection Molding module that allows users to easily segregate results into groups based on the thickness ranges.CAD users will be able to quickly verify their designs within Pro/ENGINEER® and SolidWorks®,thus, reducing cost and time-to-market, while also improving the quality of manufactured parts.DFMPro 2.3 also facilitates collaborative design review process by generating comprehensive 3D reports in eDrawings® format. This capability is very useful for suppliers who can quickly generate eDrawings reports and share it with the OEM for their review, comments and acceptance.

DFMPro is Desktop Engineering's Pick of the Week

2010-08-20T08:01:00.003+01:00

Certain key points from the article...

ECOs are a drag, both in terms of money and time squandered.
If you had just designed your parts from the beginning with a consistent set of rules that made late changes to the design less likely, late-in-the-process activities like manufacturing easier, you could fabricate your parts efficiently and eliminate all that time and money you hemorrhage fussing and fixing them late in the game.

How does DFMPro help address these points?
Read more at http://www.deskeng.com/articles/aaaybp.htm
and
Visit http://www.dfmpro.com for additional information

Geometric releases DFMPro version 2.2 for Pro/ENGINEER

2010-08-12T13:39:00.003+01:00

Version 2.2 of DFMPro for Pro/ENGINEER is available for download on Geometric website.
http://dfmpro.geometricglobal.com/products/userdetails.aspx?download=1&productid=76&RID=0

DFM Analysis in Pro/ENGINEER environment becomes more powerful with the addition of new injection molding rules. A new functionality, to export and import analysis results, allows users to save the DFMPro analysis, and view it at their convenience; and also to share the analysis results with other DFMPro users . The batch mode of DFMPro includes support to generate the exported results. This release also adds support for a 3D report which helps user collaborate quickly and easily on the manufacturability aspects of the CAD model.

Do download and provide your feedback. Write to dfmpro.marketing@geometricglobal.com for additional information.

Controlling Manufacturability Issues in the Outsourcing Scenario

2010-08-05T15:43:00.002+01:00

Eric Chapel was elated. He had just signed a outsourcing contract with a South American firm, EngineersAtWork. The arrangement would save his company, JK and Sons, around a million dollars a year. JK and Sons designed and manufactured ventilation systems for large businesses. The South American firm was going to provide him with Engineering Services at half the cost of what it would take in the UK. The icing on the cake was that he had a strong buy-in from the designers in the UK. The reason behind that was simple – the portion of the tasks getting outsourced was only the creation of design variants. The designers based in UK would control the creation of new designs whereas any new variants of existing designs would be handled by EngineersAtWork under their guidance. Thus the team could handle more jobs leading to additional revenue and higher productivity. Things looked rosy.

Design Engineers in the UK would receive requirements for a new variant, prepare specifications for the required design changes and send them over to EngineersAtWork, who would, in turn, complete the required changes, create the new variant and send it back. As time passed, Eric was slowly losing his sleep on the problems which slowly started surfacing with the arrangement. Slowly, manufacturability issues started showing up in the designs being created by EngineersAtWork. Design rework began affecting the project schedules. Eric did not have any problem with the attitude and dedication of the team at EngineersAtWork. He knew that they were sincere and committed in their efforts. It was just that they did not the required shop floor experience. The original designs created by the engineers in the UK were great examples of easy to manufacture components. However, changes being introduced by the designers at EngineersAtWork were causing manufacturing problems. The designs were as per the specifications created by the team in the UK but they did not adhere to the manufacturing guidelines. One way out was to tighten the design specs to include the manufacturing checklists but that would definitely be overkill. Creating specifications would take an unrealistic amount of time. Going through manual checklists was also time consuming. Most of the manufacturing knowledge of the design engineers at JK and Sons was built from years of experience and visits to the shop floor. Though they were reviewing the designs they received, some issues would persist. Eric wanted some tool which the team at EngineersAtWork could use for manufacturability analysis.

It was then his friend Gus suggested DFMPro. Gus was using this tool in his organization. He told Eric that it really helped his fresh-out-of-college design engineers quickly come up to speed with manufacturing aspects of a design. Eric got EngineersAtWork to start using the tool. The results started showing in a few weeks. The manufacturability issues slowly disappeared. The tool also identified certain issues in the original designs which also brought down the manufacturing time and cost. Thanks to DFMPro, JK and Sons and EngineersAtWork successfully celebrated their first year of association.

Visit dfmpro.geometricglobal.com or write to dfmpro.marketing@geometricglobal.com for more information on how you can benefit from DFMPro.

Disclaimer: All names and characters mentioned in the stories are fictitious. Any resemblance with real characters/ entities should be considered as mere coincidence


3D Model	Actual Part


3D Model	Actual Part


CAD Model		Actual Part