The role of design for manufacturing in system integration

The costs of “over design” to build in recovery tactics for poor design-production match are substantial. Design for manufacturing can greatly improve the design-production match and enhance manufacturing system integration. A model of manufacturing integration is given which emphasizes three major parameters: (1) Corporate planning, (2) Capacity, and (3) Productivity. The model enables an assessment of overall manufacturing system integration. Methods for gathering the required data and analyzing the data to supply the system integration model metrics are given. Design for manufacturing is shown to significantly impact system capacity, production control, and effectiveness of manufacturing system integration.