Design for manufacturing and assembly methods in the product development process of mechanical products: a systematic literature review

Abstract

The design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA) is a family of methods belonging to the design for X (DfX) category which goal is to optimize the manufacturing and assembly phase of products. DFMA methods have been developed at the beginning of the 1980s and widely used in both academia and industries since then. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no systematic literature reviews or mapping has been proposed yet in the field of mechanical design. The goal of this paper is to provide a systematic review of DFMA methods applied to mechanical and electro-mechanical products with the aim to collect, analyse, and summarize the knowledge acquired until today and identify future research areas. The paper provides an overview of the DFMA topic in the last four decades (i.e., from 1980 to 2021) emphasizing operational perspectives such as the design phase in which methods are used, the type of products analysed, the adoption of quantitative or qualitative metrics, the tool adopted for the assessment, and the technologies involved. As a result, the paper addresses several aspects associated with the DFMA and different outcomes retrieved by the literature review have been highlighted. The first one concerns the fact that most of the DFMA methods have been used to analyse simple products made of few components (i.e., easy to manage with a short lead-time). Another important result is the lack of valuable DFMA methods applicable at early design phases (i.e., conceptual design) when information is not detailed and presents more qualitative than quantitative data. Both results lead to the evidence that the definition of a general DFMA method and metric adaptable for every type of product and/or design phase is a challenging goal that presents several issues. Finally, a bibliographic map was developed as a suitable tool to visualize results and identify future research trends on this topic. From the bibliometric analysis, it has been shown that the overall interest in DFMA methodologies decreased in the last decade.

System Engineering Design approach and virtual assessment of a new Charging Arm concept for LHC robotic TIM

“…• move the system vertically through the concordant translation of the LDBs, keeping the CB in the middle and the whole system symmetric • open/close the system through the discordant translation of the LDBs, keeping the CB in the middle and the whole system symmetric • ensure the opening/closing movement even in case of one motor's locking, moving the other motor and, in this way, obtaining the desired redundancy The best concept seemed to fulfil each FR and therefore has been developed and implemented, following a Design For Manufacturing (DFM) approach, thus respecting the principles of: modularity, standardization, simplification, parts optimization [12,13]. A few specific adjustments have been made to guarantee product strength and compactness.…”

Slaughterhouse Waste Treatment Equipment to Produce Plant Fertilizer and Fish Feed

“…As explained, the purpose of DFA is to simplify the product so that assembly costs will be reduced. In addition, DFA in this study was used to improve the quality, reliability, and reduction in production equipment and product components [17].…”

Redesign of water filter using design for manufacturing and assembly to minimize cost and time

“…DFA is a systematic approach to reducing assembly time [12]. DFMA uses the process to assemble the product and calculate the material and manufacturing costs.…”

“…Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) means composite of DFA and DFM [11]. DFA is a systematic approach to reducing assembly time [12]. DFM is a method for simply designing a series of parts that, when assembled, form a product [13].…”