In product design, mistakes are costly. The longer it takes to discover a problem, the more costly it becomes.
I came across an article by Dr. David M. Anderson about Design for Manufacturability. He talks about "The Rule of 10," claiming that it costs 10 times more to find and repair a defect at each subsequent stage of assembly. So following his rule of 10, it goes like this:
Level of Completion – Cost to find & Repair Defect
the part itself – X
at sub-assembly – 10X
at final assembly – 100X
at the dealer/distributor – 1,000X
at the customer – 10,000X
While you can have your own multiplier, the principle remains the same. I would extend this concept to the engineering stages of a product.
Have a cost target in mind from day one of engineering, a true educated guess of what the product should cost.
As time progresses during engineering, any items that could/should have been taken care of earlier are just collecting money. If these items require a redesign, it could potentially cost $1,000’s.
Mistakes can happen, but catch them as early as possible. Bring your manufacturing team into the Product Design stage for concurrent engineering and to utilize their knowledge.
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