Monday
30Jul2007
Strategically simpler
Monday, July 30, 2007 at 5:19PM Among the most powerful simplification concepts is DFMA -design for manufacturing and assembly. The focus is reducing the number of parts in a product design. The place to look is a company named Boothroyd and Dewhurst. In preparation for one of our quarterly executive development session they used one of our most popular products. In two weeks of preparation they had reduced the part count from 76 to 42 parts.
They modestly suggested
"we don't know the part as well as you, therefore, we may have taken some inappropriate shortcuts". No one wanted to challenge.
Their point less parts to pay for, no purchasing support, no moving or storage costs. Less parts require less assembly, have no inventory requirements and on.
Stroll through what is possible. They of course are their best spokesperson. Go to their website http://www.dfma.com/ to see examples of meaningful successes among products you know. These are great examples of marrying "what is possible" to simpler101
President George Bush awards the founders of Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc., the National Medal of Technology "for their concept, development and commercialization of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA), which has dramatically reduced costs, improved product quality, and enhanced the competitiveness of major U.S. manufacturers."
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