Recent experiences from carrying out Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Manufacture
(DFM) product studies in industry have reinforced the authors’ belief that consideration
of manufacturing problems at the design stage is the major means available for improving
product quality, reducing manufacturing costs and increasing productivity. In the second
edition, as well as providing further information to help select processes for components and
the joining of components, we have included data on assembly process selection and costing.
This can all be used to support DFA/DFM projects and associated activities.
The inclusion of assembly is very conscious, in that assembly issues are often neglected in
product engineering. Through consideration of assembly, many strategically important issues
can be addressed. For example, DFA impacts much more than assembly itself. In addition to
reducing component assembly and handling costs, DFA encourages part-count optimization,
variety reduction and standardization.