Manufacturing Cost Controls With Design Optimization
Optimization of materials is one way to keep costs low with metal fabrication. If a material is more difficult to find or its availability is rarer, this will make it more costly. If a lower cost alternative can be employed, this needs to be investigated to keep costs of production at a minimum. Looking at the manufacturing process could find improvements and savings. If the manufacturing processes are manual, savings could be garnered if more automation were used. It may also be discovered that the manufacturing system was not tested accurately and too much waste is cultivated, resulting in much scrap, for example. Having too much scrap is a loss of revenue where the metal or material could have been used to manufacture a product if testing were more precise as was the manufacturing process. If a company decides to outsource some of its manufacturing to cut costs, one important consideration is in the quality of the product. If the quality of the product is lost because of the reduction in costs, this may not be as helpful in cost savings as hoped. Concurrent Engineering and Design for Manufacturability Another way of saving on costs is through concurrent engineering. This is when a product is designed at the same time as the manufacturing process for the development of the product. Another way is design for manufacturability (DFM) where products are designed in a way to optimize all of the facets of the manufacturing process such as testing, fabrication, shipping, ensuring the best costs and customer satisfaction. DFM promotes products to be manufactured with the least amount of parts and therefore less waste and cost reduction. Design of a product is done so that the product can function with other parts and standardization is promoted. Other Cost Saving Methods Working with a vendor to help in the design of a product can help in keeping costs low. They can help in averting making decisions such as making a product unnecessarily fancier for aesthetic purposes. Vendors will comprehend the problems that face manufacturers and can help in offering solutions. This additionally imparts a learning opportunity so that the manufacturer and vendor learn how to produce the jobs faster and more effectively each time. Input has to be garnered from staff in every department of the company in order to cut costs. Talking to employees who actually do the jobs on the floor can result in ideas on how to make changes to save money. Understanding all problems that have happened in the past and learning from them so that they will not be repeated in the future is important. Make sure designs are as simple as they can be so the fabrication, processing and assembly are simple. Any problems in fabrication, processing and assembly can end in huge costs to fix. Follow procedures for design processes. For example, there are certain procedures for operation of a laser cutter for metal laser cutting, so follow them to the letter every time the laser cutter is used. Do not design for right- and left-hand parts but produce a product that can be employed either way so as not to end up with a large amount of stock. Have a product that is symmetrical so it is simple to assemble and avoids unneeded complexity. Always manufacture a quality item. It is less costly to do it right the first time than to fix it later on. Marc Anderes is the Vice President of Operations of Maloya Laser which specializes in Laser Cutting and Metal Manufacturing with advanced laser technologies, for aerospace, medical, machinery, scientific and transportation needs.
