Engineering efficiency through DFA metrics. I’ve generalized something I often notice here. Who among you uses the DFA indicator? Here’s the situation: an engineer is working on improving a design and needs several more hours to reduce the production cost of this device, let’s say by a million per year. The trouble is, they don’t know exactly how much it will be and can’t explain the situation to the manager. The manager decides to halt further development work because every hour spent on design translates to a specific cost. That’s all the manager understands; they’re frustrated because they haven’t seen profits from the designer’s work for some time.
Enhancing Communication Between Engineers and Managers
It turns out there are ways to quickly and clearly convey information from the engineer that is understandable to the manager. For example, there’s the percentage-based DFA indicator. The manager can quickly realize that in their industry, when this indicator is only 20%, there’s a need to work on optimizing the design. At 30%, it’s good, and each additional hour of the designer’s work could potentially yield returns over tenfold. When it exceeds 40%, it’s at a global level, and the return from each additional engineering hour will be smaller (although still greater than 1:1) because crucial manufacturing optimizations have been made. Unfortunately, the engineer doesn’t communicate using such numbers with the manager.
The Influence of Technical Metrics on Managerial Decision-Making
If only the manager knew that in this case, the DFA was only 25%, and it was definitely worth continuing. Especially non-technical managers with a humanistic background can make big mistakes without such an indicator.
The Hidden Dynamics in Engineering Companies
I exaggerated a bit, but these situations are commonplace in many companies that design what they manufacture. However, nobody sees them from the perspective I’ve presented. The engineer probably didn’t encounter DFA during their studies (a mere two-day training would be sufficient), and the manager hasn’t even heard of it.
The Efficiency of Design Optimization in Manufacturing
The manager has heard of Lean Manufacturing, and although Lean is great, it deals with the issue long after the milk has spilled (i.e., only in the manufacturing phase), looking at the translation of effort in improving the design project into later manufacturing savings. The investment in optimizing the design can have a really significant return.
Evolution and Importance of Design for Manufacturing (DFM) Concepts
Engineering efficiency through DFA metrics. DFA evolves into Design For Assembly, the art of best engineering practices for final production (i.e., with assembly processes). There’s also DFM, Design for Manufacturing, which gathers best practices for manufacturing individual components.
