If you want to design products that can be manufactured in large quantities, you need to optimize your designs for high-volume production. This means reducing costs, improving quality, and ensuring compatibility with the available machines and materials. In this article, we will share some tips on how to use CAD/CAM software and best practices to achieve these goals.
One of the first steps to optimize your designs for high-volume production is to choose the right materials for your product. You should consider factors such as durability, functionality, aesthetics, environmental impact, and availability. You should also compare the costs and benefits of different materials, such as metals, plastics, composites, or ceramics. CAD/CAM software can help you to simulate the performance and behavior of different materials and test their suitability for your design.
Another way to optimize your designs for high-volume production is to simplify your geometry as much as possible. This means avoiding unnecessary features, such as sharp corners, thin walls, complex curves, or intricate details. These can increase the machining time, waste material, and cause defects or errors. You should also aim to minimize the number of parts and assemblies, as this can reduce the assembly time, tooling costs, and quality issues. CAD/CAM software can help you to create simple and efficient geometries that can be easily manufactured.
A third tip to optimize your designs for high-volume production is to use standard dimensions and tolerances for your parts and components. This means following the industry norms and conventions for the sizes and shapes of your parts, as well as the allowable variations and deviations from the specifications. This can ensure that your parts are compatible with the existing machines, tools, and fixtures, and that they can be easily measured and inspected. CAD/CAM software can help you to apply standard dimensions and tolerances to your designs and check for errors or inconsistencies.
A fourth suggestion to optimize your designs for high-volume production is to optimize your toolpaths and parameters for your machining processes. This means choosing the best tools, speeds, feeds, depths, and angles for your operations, such as milling, drilling, turning, or cutting. This can reduce the machining time, improve the surface finish, and extend the tool life. CAD/CAM software can help you to generate optimal toolpaths and parameters for your designs and simulate the machining processes.
A final recommendation to optimize your designs for high-volume production is to validate and verify your designs before sending them to the production floor. This means testing and evaluating your designs for functionality, quality, and manufacturability. You should also check for any errors or issues that might affect the production process, such as collisions, interferences, or gaps. CAD/CAM software can help you to validate and verify your designs using various methods, such as finite element analysis, stress analysis, or collision detection.
By following these tips, you can optimize your designs for high-volume production and create products that are cost-effective, high-quality, and easy to manufacture.
Incorporating 5s in to production processes increases productivity and minimise time wastage. Short Interval Process Controls SIPC ensures the batch being produced meets the highest standard of quality and the batch is controllable whenever there is an issue. This approach increases work efficiency and optimises cost of production.
A plant layout that optimises continuous flow, allowing for minimal transportation distances and inbound and outbound workflows is an important feature. This can be challenging though, as no one size fits all due to building constraints. This will help with wastes driven by bottlenecks. Often, engaging with workers to get their views on layout is a great way to drive engagement and buy-in, whilst also getting the best ideas from the people that know.