Software Simplifies Product Design

Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc. has released a new version of its Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) software, DFMA 2006. This application is designed to cut costs by helping engineers simplify product design. Afterward, it estimates assembly labor and part manufacturing costs, isolating the major cost drivers associated with a wide range of choices for part manufacture and finishing. According to the company, users can minimize costs by streamlining suppliers, inventory and shipping, and by reducing the number of digital archives to maintain. It contains a set of industry-tested early cost models for material and manufacturing processes. These include sheet metalworking, machining, structural foam molding, plastic extrusion, injection molding, cold and hot die casting, thermoforming and many others. In addition to these, two new processes now come with the 2006 version of the product. First, a printed circuit board process incorporates cost models for bare board manufacture, as well as population, or assembly, of the board. This is designed to allow product development teams to include estimates for printed circuit boards in early cost profiles for electromechanical devices. In addition, an automatic assembly process estimates the cost of putting a product together on an automatic, high speed assembly machine. It also computes the estimated cost of assembling the same product on a manual assembly line for comparison.