Process Manufacturing Guide

Mechanical Design Process

Critical to every product manufactured is the definition of the components used in the manufacturing process. This is done with the help of a Mechanical Design Process. Much the same way how an architectural design process is used as a tool and a blueprint for construction of homes, a mechanical design process is used for manufacturing of products (automobiles, household products etc). A good mechanical design process would ensure a good product if the manufacturing process implements the design specifications properly.

Why is Mechanical Design Process so important?

A design process will enable the team members to think creatively, synthesize ideas and visualize the product.

Let's consider that an automobile company wishes to manufacture a car with the idea of handicapped people being able to drive it comfortably. The design for this automobile will have to be slightly different than the manufacturing designs for other cars. The development and the manufacturing team ideally strategize the design by thinking creatively, understanding the needs of the customer and visualizing the end product. In most cases, the end output would be a handicapped people friendly car which has cushioned seats with extra support, automatic gear systems and much more.

What are the problems faced in a Design Process?

Visibility of the end-product - Manufacturing process designers are encouraged to visualize the end-product while designing the product specifications. This allows the designers to work backward and provide a design which suits the specifications almost entirely. This may not be a foolproof strategy in products which are extremely input - centric (The product is highly influenced by the inputs for the process). Design Analysts have identified this as an area of opportunity and have come up with dynamic techniques which provide nearly accurate designs either ways.
Design Processes are susceptible to uncontrollable changes - In an ideal scenario, Business owners ensure that their design process is immune to any external change. Practically, many uncontrollable changes force operational constraints on the engineering design process. This susceptibility to changes impact the product design process in a great way as the product development may be centered on a distorted design.
Creative Thinking - Most design problems can be solved if the designers can think creatively. The real problem is the definition of creativity. I have observed some cases where designers have come up with a solution claiming it to be creative. Actually, the solution had been implemented thousand times before in different products. My idea of creativity is to come up with a unique solution to a problem. The issue is it is still a thought and one has to walk many yards to implement this.

Challenges aside, the fact that Mechanical Design process provides a blue print to the manufacturing or the product development team cannot be challenged. It remains to be seen as to how manufacturing analysts overcome the challenges though.