A list of tips to consider when you begin to design for manufacturing ( DFM )

Designing for Production

The maker movement is on. Mass production is no longer a game only to be played by corporate giants. The internet has given individual inventors, entrepreneurs, startups and  small to medium sized businesses the tools and communities to market, fundraise, and distribute their products. Anyone with an idea can bring that idea to consumers as a product with speed and cost efficiency never available before.

However, a good idea will only get you so far. As an electrical engineer working with inventors on a daily basis, I see people falling into the same pitfalls over and over again. Their ideas are good and they are always well motivated but they typically are not production minded. A working prototype is a great way to show investors and customers what a product does but if that prototype cannot be reproduced in a reliable and inexpensive manner, you’ll have to invest time and money getting your design ready for production. Keep in mind that the term production doesn’t have to refer to a massive factory; production can be done in your living room. Regardless, the same principles still apply: the less time you spend putting something together, the more time you’ll have to do other things that drive your business. You should be thinking about production as early as the prototyping phase. Why do something twice when you can do it right the first time?

With that primer, here are some quick tips on production for electronic designers / entrepreneurs / inventors to be thinking about when it is time to design for manufacturing.

Design for Manufacturing

You know those little things that annoyed you while you were building your prototype? Like how hard it was to plug in the connectors because too many tall components were nearby? Or how you had to repair a PCB because a trace was routed to close to the board edge and was sheared off? Well, imagine how annoyed you’ll be dealing with those issues over and over again in production. And if someone else is manufacturing the product for you, it’ll annoy them too and they’ll make sure you pay for that annoyance in dollars. Trust me, contract manufactures know what they’re doing. They’ll spot manufacturing issues from a mile away and include that cost in your quote. Take advantage of that knowledge: show your design to a contract manufacturer. They’ll let you know the issues and how to resolve them.

Design for Reliability

Nothing does more damage to your bottom line and brand than a product failure in the field. The way to reduce failures is to design with margin and test, test, test. Test the margins in your system while you are prototyping. What if you increase your clock speed? Can your design handle it? Operating on the edge of the capabilities of the board design is a recipe for disaster because the stars will align eventually and you’ll experience failures. Be sure to test the life of your product too. What’s your product meant to do? Whatever it is, find a way to repeatedly test that functionality over and over again day and night. Your goal is to test years of normal use in a period of days or weeks. Any issues you find and resolve during life testing is one less defect users will experience.  This means happier customers and less time and money spent on resolving failures in the field.

For more information, please feel free to contact us.