Introduction to the Development of a Manufacturability Assessment Methodology

Dalton, L., McCall, T. G., & Walden, C. (2016). Introduction to the Development of a Manufacturability Assessment Methodology. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Management 2016 International Conference. Concord, NC.

Abstract

Development of a Manufacturability Assessment Methodology There is a need for a practical, yet comprehensive method of reviewing a product design in order to ascertain the level of difficulty and risk inherent in its manufacturability. The development of the Manufacturability Assessment Methodology (MAM) is aimed at addressing this need. It is an approach that employs a series of judgments conducted by subject matter experts in an effort to understand the key elements of the product design and their impact on various aspects of manufacturing. By applying this type of evaluation, it provides a means to quantify the inherent risk of a product’s manufacturability. For typical industrial applications, the benefits of using this methodology include savings in both cost and time, which serves to enhance the competitiveness of a business and contribute to its general economic development. Similarly, the Department of Defense Engineered Resilient Systems (ERS) program seeks to utilize this type of tool along with others to provide the capability to rapidly design, develop, test, and build trusted, flexible, and resilient systems. The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) has developed other software tools, as well as a systems engineering framework and workflow, that supports system development from DoD Pre-Milestone A analysis throughout the lifecycle of the system. The resulting outcome of the methodology would include a metric (i.e. manufacturability score) along with identified risk areas for improvement of the manufacturability of a given design. This paper provides an introductory approach to the design of such a methodology.