Musings of a Compulsive Thinker

DFMA

Design for Manufacture & Assembly. It's a huge concept in engineering. I've been working through the principles a lot this semester in various classes and projects. Basically, the idea is that when you're designing something, you optimize the design to make it as cheap, easy, and fast as possible to produce. Some ways in which you can do this are eliminating unneccessary parts (for example, using snap-fits instead of screws), combining parts, and using standard components instead of custom ones.

I've spent a lot of time this weekend examining a Kodak FunSaver (with flash) disposable camera. My team's goal for this case study was to determine how Kodak manufactures and assembles this camera. Most of what I did involved taking apart the camera and figuring out the order and manner of assembly for all the little internal gears and springs and things. I have to admire the DFMA that went into the camera body; there are so many little protrusions and slots and things built into the solid base itself that, if produced as separate pieces that needed to be assembled on a less complicated body, would have been an absolute logistical nightmare. And most of the camera is also recyclable; the majority of the parts are made out of polystyrene or other recyclable plastic. It's an amazing little package. Ah, the marvels of modern engineering...

Yeah, DFMA makes the world go 'round.

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Labels: engineering

posted by the alygator @ 1:22 PM