Freedom to Redesign
By implementing rapid manufacturing, companies will realize profit improvement, process acceleration, continuous product improvement and scrap reduction from the newfound ability to freely redesign a product at any stage in its life cycle
Directly from CAD data, components are manufactured without molding, casting or machining. The impact of rapped manufacturing is far-reaching, and the opportunities and advantages are extensive. This is why rapid manufacturing is heralded as the next industrial revolution.
Since the earliest days of rapid prototyping, experts have envisioned the application of the technology in the manufacturing process, and the focus of this vision has been on the initial cost and time savings that are realized when tooling is eliminated. However, the relative impact pales in comparison to the wide ranging advantages that exist when rapid manufacturing is implemented. Rapid manufacturing will benefit nearly every discipline within a manufacturing organization, and it will change fundamental business processes. An example of rapid manufacturing's impact and opportunity is the newfound freedom to redesign products while in production.
Status Quo
For the production of moderate to high-volume quantities of metal or
plastic parts, molding and casting are the prevalent processes.
However, the tooling that is required demands a sizeable investment and
a significant commitment to the product and its design.
The rapid cycle times of tooling facilitate inexpensive manufacturing of thousands, often millions, of parts. When amortized over large part quantities, the cost of tooling becomes reasonable. However, this presumes that the tool will be operated for long periods of time, and therefore, the tooling becomes a liability. With the prospect of additional costs and delays, product modifications are undesirable. Investing $5,000 to $20,000 for tooling rework, or $20,000 to $75,000 for replacement, is an unwelcome expense. Therefore, whenever possible, the ideal situation is to produce a perfect tool and keep that tool running for the life of the product. With this aim, the release of a work order for a production and becomes a major commitment.
However, the commitment is unreasonable. Product lifecycles are shorter, consumer demand is more fickle and the odds of redesign are high. Without the perfect product, perfect design and perfect mold, the investment in tooling becomes a constraint and an undesirable commitment. In many cases, when face with a less than ideal scenario, companies will opt to continue manufacturing the product without change. The cost and time of retooling outweigh the advantages of redesign.
Tooling is a commitment. The moment the order is released for tooling, the design becomes frozen. There is little latitude for change and alteration. The options are limited to reworking, retooling or building a stockpile of imperfect molded parts. Tooling is a constraint to making better products with h better sales results.
Freedom to Redesign
Rapid manufacturing eliminates tooling and the associated constraints
to changing a product's design. Since there is no investment of time
and money in a tool, there is unlimited potential for product changes
after it has been placed in production. With rapid manufacturing, there
is no penalty for error correction and no barrier to fine-tuning a
design while it is in production. In fact, the process can facilitate
rampant redesign that caters to rapidly changing consumer desires or
counteracts competitive maneuvers.
In a rapid manufacturing environment, product changes or design fixes are simply, efficiently and affordably implemented. With only a change to the CAD data, new variations of products are immediately ready for production. Redesign decisions are based solely on needs—not on a multi-faced decision matrix that considers manufacturing operations, tooling costs, opportunity costs and other effects on the business.
Rapid manufacturing breaks the shackles of the constraint imposed by tooling and frees a company to make the best product possible. Although this is a simple statement, it has major ramifications for those companies that implement rapid manufacturing techniques.
Return on Investment
The value of freedom to redesign is immeasurable. It goes well beyond
the standard accounting metrics. Yet, for those that require tangible,
quantifiable measures, there are three financial calculations available
for justifying rapid manufacturing: initial savings on tooling, savings
on network and increased sales revenue.
Using historical data, determine the typical expense for tooling and the cost of rework or replacement. Extrapolate these costs across all products made in a year. Then, determine the typical delay in product delivery that is associated with tool making and tool rework. Multiply the number of days of lost sales times the anticipated daily sales, and multiply this result by the gross profit percentage. Combined, these factors represent the measurable financial impact of rapid manufacturing and the freedom to redesign.
As shown in the ROI Calculation sidebar, the potential for profit improvement is far greater than that from only the avoidance of investing in tooling. While this profit gain is impressive, even greater gains are available from those aspects that are difficult, or impossible, to measure.
Process Acceleration
Since there is no penalty for imperfection, the entire design, testing
and manufacturing process can be accelerated. Instead of inverting time
and money in making a product perfect in order to avoid cost and delays
for rework, or driving out the minor flaws and detecting small
oversights, companies can shorten the development process by proceeding
to the next phase earlier because of the inherent flexibility to alter
a design at any time.
In effect, there is little difference between a prototype, alpha test, beta test and finished product. All phases have no commitment to tooling, and therefore, no negative effects of change. Additionally, the design team will not be faced with the difficult decision of freezing a design that is not quite ready in order to meet product launch schedules. While it is never desirable to launch a flawed product quickly, rapid manufacturing promotes process acceleration because there is always an option for redesign.
Continuous Product Improvement
The stream of input for product enhancement is endless. Step back from
any project for a few days—view it with fresh eyes—and previously
undetected errors or opportunities for enhancement will leap out. Put a
product in the hands of customers, and they will provide feedback over
the product's life. Rapid manufacturing allows companies to incorporate
these observations and inputs as they are discovered. Fixes and
enhancements can be introduced in each and every production run since
there is no need for tooling rework.
Decreased Obsolescence and Scrap
Since rapid manufacturing does not have economies of scale associated
with long production runs, the on-demand nature of the process means
that there will be minimal work in progress (WIP) and finished goods
inventory. This translates to decreased inventory carrying costs and
minimal financial impact for product revisions. In effect, forced
obsolescence has little relevance in the decision to redesign a product
since there is only a small amount of inventory on-hand.
Conclusion
When companies implement rapid manufacturing, they will realize profit
improvement, process acceleration, continuous product improvement and
scrap reduction from the newfound ability to freely redesign a product
at any stage in its lifecycle. Although these benefits are difficult to
quantify, the positive impact on a company and its products is obvious.
Rapid manufacturing will be the next industrial revolution. With it, as with any revolution, there will be a total upheaval, a radical change and an overthrow of existing practices. Rapid manufacturing will infiltrate all processes and every discipline within a company and it will change how manufacturing is done.
