Large-scale manufacturing plays an important but hidden role in our everyday lives, as it affords us essential goods at a cheap price. In a market where cost-effectiveness and efficiency are paramount, products and components must be designed for manufacturing at scale.
Design for manufacturing (DFM) is a strategic approach to product design that minimizes production costs without sacrificing performance or reliability. As such, companies can significantly reduce a product’s final cost by making thoughtful design choices early in the process.
Whether an organization develops consumer electronics, industrial machinery, or medical devices, DFM principles offer substantial cost savings and more scalable manufacturing processes.
In this guide, we’ll explore the 11 key principles of DFM, from reducing part complexity to material selection and compliance considerations. We’ll also highlight emerging trends, such as 3D printing, AI-driven design, and sustainable manufacturing, that are shaping the future of DFM.
Design for manufacturing, or DFM, is the process of designing products at minimum cost without compromising performance. The product of DFM should have good utility and function, and there should not be any concession on quality and long-term reliability.
As a result, the process requires optimizing design elements to minimize production complexity, reduce material waste, and ensure high-quality output.
Your design choices could contribute more than 70% of the final product cost, with process, materials, and other factors making up the rest. Because product design accounts for the bulk of design costs, minimizing its complexity can lead to a 20% reduction in costs per assembled part.
DFM offers financial advantages, but there are many benefits of design for manufacturing, including:
The table below highlights some common manufacturing challenges and the design principles that can address them.
| Manufacturing Challenge | Relevant DFM Principle(s) | How It Helps |
| High production costs | – Reduce the Number of Parts – Modular Design | Fewer parts reduce costs and complexity |
| Assembly bottlenecks | – Design for Assembly (DFA) – Modular Design | Simplified assembly processes reduce time and improve efficiency |
| Poor product quality and reliability | – Design for Reliability (DFR) – Choice of Materials | High-quality materials and stress testing reduce failures |
| Difficult or expensive testing | – Design for Testability (DFT) | Built-in testing features reduce test time and costs |
Photo by Kevin Shek from Unsplash
The cost of production decreases dramatically when organizations make design choices with large-scale manufacturing as a primary consideration.
Although DFM considerations vary by product, many principles remain the same. Your team needs to be aware of these 11 principles to minimize waste while improving overall product quality.
Design the product to have fewer parts, with fewer molds and fewer fabrication procedures. The chances of error lessen with fewer parts, so it’s better to use fewer parts and components during the design phase.
For example, Apple’s MacBook Pro uses a unibody aluminum chassis instead of smaller parts, which reduces assembly time significantly.
Of course, this must be accomplished without compromising performance or functionality. Consider using design simulation software to iterate through design options until you find the one that best balances simplicity and function.
Modular design involves developing products with interchangeable components. Modular designs are also easy to assemble and disassemble, making maintenance and repair cheaper and less complex.
LEGO and IKEA products are perfect examples of modular design, which makes products easy to assemble, disassemble, and customize.
Design the product with standard components that are easy to source and install. Standard components are in plentiful supply and are relatively inexpensive. For example, car manufacturers use standardized screws and connectors for all their vehicle models, which reduces procurement costs.
In contrast, when you design products with custom components, you’ll also have to invest money in manufacturing those components. This obviously increases costs and complexity, whereas using standard components can reduce both.
When the same part can perform different functions, it can be used for different purposes in the assembled product. Although the number of components requiring manufacture increases, the cost for each component decreases due to economies of scale.
This, in turn, reduces the cost of the final product. For example, most smartphones have multi-functional motherboards that handle processing and memory, eliminating the need for separate components.
Multi-use of parts in the assembly of a product means the same part can be used multiple times. The function remains the same each time the part is used, but parts with the same specification will be used multiple times, reducing the cost of the final product.
EV manufacturer Tesla leverages this principle by using the same battery cell design in various vehicle models.
The fabrication process must also be carefully evaluated during the product design phase. You’ll need to consider the resources and expertise available to manufacture the product, and the design should include all the constraints for manufacturing the product.
For instance, companies like Logitech design mouse casings as single molded pieces to reduce assembly complexity.
Materials can have a tremendous impact on the manufacturing process, but designers should not choose materials that hurt performance. Plastic might be easier to work with than metal, but metal offers much better durability and performance.
You have to make similar choices while selecting the materials to manufacture products. For example, aircraft manufacturers transitioned from aluminum to carbon fiber, which reduced aircraft weight while simplifying manufacturing.
Also, consider durability when choosing nameplates or other data plates required for your finished products. For products exposed to harsh environmental conditions, Metalphoto® anodized aluminum nameplates offer the durability to withstand exposure to outdoor elements and harsh operating environments, while remaining readable throughout the product’s lifespan.
The environment in which the products are created and assembled must also be incorporated into their design, as the design must be easily manufactured and assembled in the workshop or factory floor. Such a design will improve process efficiency and reduce costs.
Maximizing the use of machines and automated processes in manufacturing can reduce errors and defects arising from human handling. Accurate and precise manufacturing is also possible when there is minimal handling.
To accomplish this, you should have extensive knowledge of available automated processes during the design phase. For example, Amazon’s automated fulfillment centers rely on robotic systems to transport and sort products, which reduces errors in distribution.
Products must adhere to the various compliances and regulations of the jurisdictions under which the factory and the product fall. As such, compliance with existing regulations has to be enforced from the very beginning of the design phase.
This design for manufacturing principle is especially important for medical devices, which must follow FDA and ISO 13485 regulations from the start to ensure market approval.
Avoid the trap of not improving your product after the initial design, which is a core tenet of the typical engineering design process. You should always return to the drawing board to incorporate a better process when you see opportunities for improvement.
Continuous improvement should always be a core principle while designing and manufacturing your product. Toyota’s “kaizen,” or “continuous improvement,” methodology is a great example of this approach, as it ensures ongoing process optimization.
Check out the table below for an overview of the different design principles that are most relevant at each stage of the design process.
| Product Lifecycle Stage | Relevant DFM Principles | Purpose/Focus |
| Concept & Design | – Reduce Number of Parts – Modular Design – Standard Components | – Minimize design complexity – Optimize parts usage – Simplify assembly |
| Prototype & Testing | – Design for Ease of Fabrication – Choice of Materials – Design for Testability | – Focus on ease of manufacturing, reliability, and testing methods |
| Production | – Maximize Compliance – Minimize Handling – Continuous Improvement | – Ensure product quality – Maintain regulatory compliance – Improve processes |
| Post-Production | – Design for Reliability – Modular Design – Standard Components | – Improve product maintenance – Ensure long-term durability and ease of repair |
While DFM principle provides a broad approach to optimizing product designs for cost-effective production, it’s closely related to other specialized design principles: Design for Assembly (DFA), Design for Reliability (DFR), and Design for Testability (DFT).
These principles focus on ensuring that products are not only easy and cost-effective to manufacture, but also reliable, easy to test, and efficient in their assembly processes. Here’s a breakdown of each:
DFA focuses on simplifying the assembly process by designing products in such a way that they require fewer parts, less handling, and more efficient assembly methods. Minimizing the number of components and ensuring that parts can be easily aligned and put together enables companies to reduce assembly time, lower labor costs, and cut down on errors.
The ultimate goal is to streamline the assembly line, making it quicker and cheaper while maintaining product quality. For example, a product with modular components that fit together easily without the need for complex tools will be easier and faster to assemble.
DFR aims to ensure that the product performs reliably throughout its expected lifespan. This principle involves designing products that can withstand wear and tear, perform under varying conditions, and require minimal maintenance. It takes into account factors such as stress analysis, material selection, and environmental considerations, with the goal of minimizing the risk of failure.
By incorporating reliability-focused design early in the process, manufacturers can significantly reduce warranty costs and product returns, and improve customer satisfaction. For example, in industries such as aerospace, where failure is not an option, DFR is critical for ensuring safety and operational reliability.
DFT involves designing products so that they are easy to test during the production process and after assembly. This principle helps ensure that defects can be quickly identified and rectified, leading to higher quality and fewer defects reaching the customer.
Products designed with DFT in mind may include built-in diagnostic features, easy-to-access test points, or modular components that can be tested individually before being integrated into the full system. For instance, electronic devices may include built-in test points for checking voltage levels, making the testing process faster and more efficient.
The table below compares these design principles with DFM.
| Principle | Focus Area | Key Benefits | Best Practices |
| Design for Manufacturing (DFM) | Optimizing product designs for cost-effective manufacturing | – Reduced production costs – Faster time-to-market- Improved scalability | – Simplify the design to minimize complexity – Standardize parts and components – Optimize material usage – Consider ease of fabrication and assembly |
| Design for Assembly (DFA) | Simplifying assembly processes | – Reduced assembly time – Cost savings | – Minimize the number of parts – Standardize components – Design for ease of orientation and handling |
| Design for Reliability (DFR) | Ensuring long-term performance and durability | – Fewer failures – Reduced warranty costs | – Use durable materials – Perform stress and failure analysis – Conduct environmental testing |
| Design for Testability (DFT) | Designing for easy testing and diagnostics | – Faster defect detection – Better quality control | – Include test points for easy access – Design modular components for testing – Use diagnostic tools during production |
Together, these principles—DFA, DFR, and DFT—complement DFM by addressing specific aspects of product design that are crucial to successful manufacturing: efficient assembly, reliable performance, and thorough testing.
Integrating these design principles into the development process helps manufacturers ensure that products are not only easy to make but also reliable, easy to assemble, and simple to test, ultimately resulting in higher quality and lower overall costs.
Photo by UX Store from Unsplash
Both design best practices and manufacturing technologies change over time, making it necessary for DFM to evolve. Several trends integrate cutting-edge innovations into DFM processes, streamlining production, reducing costs, and enhancing product performance.
Traditional manufacturing processes generate waste by cutting parts from a single sheet of material. This process also requires complex tooling, which adds time and complexity.
Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, supports on-demand production of even the most intricate designs with nearly zero waste. It also speeds up prototyping, allowing design teams to iterate features more quickly.
Artificial intelligence (AI) works with human designers to pinpoint inefficiencies and maximize production by analyzing constraints, materials, and costs to create optimized, manufacturable designs.
AI speeds up decision-making and identifies ways to reduce complexity, material usage, and production costs. It is by no means a replacement for design expertise, but a helpful tool for improving accuracy and speed.
Researchers are continually improving the quality, durability, and cost of materials. New high-performance materials are enabling stronger, lighter, and more sustainable products. Nanomaterials, composites, and other smart materials are improving durability while reducing production complexity.
Some of these materials are still in the development stage, but options like carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CRFP) are already innovating automotive and aerospace products by reducing weight without compromising strength.
As of 2022, around 14% of the US population has a disability, and users who are hard of hearing, have limb differences, or have low vision require additional support. Businesses that fail to cater to these unique needs will risk missing out on a key differentiator in the market.
As a result, more companies are prioritizing accessible designs, ensuring that products accommodate diverse needs while remaining manufacturable at scale. Inclusive design also considers ease of assembly and maintenance for workers, saving time and resources.
Seventy-eight percent (78%) of consumers believe sustainability is important, and 55% are willing to pay more for sustainable products. Fortunately, sustainability has never been easier for manufacturers—in fact, sustainability often complements efforts to reduce waste and improve performance.
This DFM trend requires selecting materials that are easily recyclable or reusable, using less energy, and participating in a circular economy to minimize waste.
DFM is critical to bringing down a product’s final cost without compromising on its durability, quality, and performance. The principles of DFM may initially seem simple, but the positive impact on improving the manufacturing process is invaluable.
The cost savings achieved are always significant, making it critical to consider incorporating the principles of DFM while designing or improving your product.
As you refine your organization’s DFM strategies, prioritize high-quality identification and tracking solutions for your products. Metalphoto of Cincinnati offers durable nameplates, labels, and control panels that withstand harsh operating environments, ensuring long-term readability and compliance.
Whether you need Metalphoto® anodized aluminum nameplates for extreme conditions or custom data plates for traceability, MPC provides precision-engineered solutions tailored to your manufacturing needs. Request your free label and tag evaluation kit now to see MPC’s quality firsthand.
DFM reduces production costs while maintaining high-quality, durable, and functional products. By optimizing design choices, manufacturers can simplify assembly, minimize waste, and improve overall efficiency in large-scale production.
DFM reduces costs by:
These strategies lead to faster production times, less material waste, and fewer assembly errors, all of which contribute to cost savings.
DFM principles are widely used in industries such as automotive, aerospace, electronics, medical devices, and consumer goods. However, any industry that involves large-scale production can benefit from them, as they can reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Our sales engineers are experts in automatic asset tracking, tagging and identification,a nd can answer all your questions. Get in touch now.
Lets Talk ›Enter your information and get a free guide of the key design considerations applicable to industrial control panel design, including schematics, relevant regulatory standards, and design considerations relating to every facet of effective control panel design for industrial equipment and machinery.
