BOOTHROYD DEWHURST, Inc.
In our previous articles, we explored how DFMA software secures your proprietary data behind your own firewall and provides unbiased “true cost” analysis that doesn’t rely on historical data or inaccurate “alignment” procedures.
While accurate costing and data security are vital, you need to do more than negotiate better prices to maximize profitability. The best way to widen your margins is to optimize your product design from the ground up.
DFMA software is different and offers more and better functionality than its competitors. Why? DFMA software simplifies your design process, helping you save time, labor, and money before your product goes to manufacturing.
Why should I choose DFMA software instead of other costing software on the market?
DFMA software reduces product cost, not just parts cost.
Most costing tools are essentially calculators. They total the prices of existing components using historical data, then adjust the results to align with expected values. This process leaves a lot of room for error if current prices differ from historical prices or if the final result doesn’t closely match expected values.
DFMA software avoids these problems altogether by taking a completely different approach. DFMA goes to the source of costs (the product’s design, parts, and assembly processes) and simplifies the product from start to finish.
Instead of using price estimates to negotiate with your vendors, as you would be compelled to with other costing tools, DFMA software helps you design the most cost-efficient product. Then you can go to vendors with real, up-to-date cost data.
In some customers’ cases, streamlining just one product with DFMA software saves millions of dollars each year.
How does DFMA simplify product design?
Rather than looking only at a bill of materials, as you would with other costing tools, you’ll explore deeply the why behind your product’s design. What are the product’s most essential functional requirements? This will be your starting point.
DFMA software will then use Design for Assembly (DFA) analysis to calculate several factors that will influence the product’s final design. The goal is to find the “theoretical minimum” number of parts needed to build the product simply, quickly, and efficiently.
Going back to the product’s bare bones architecture creates a cascade of positive effects.
Eliminating unnecessary components and simplifying the rest leads to:
Instead of simply negotiating for better prices on parts, you’ve designed a more profitable product from day one.
Extrapolate these savings across your whole product line, and it becomes clear why DFMA software is so different (and so much more powerful) than other options.
What else makes DFMA the best choice?
Designing a more profitable product is the biggest bang for your buck. But there are additional benefits that DFMA software has over other options. These features can be make-or-break on their own:
Other costing software requires a perfect, finalized CAD model before it can generate results. This creates a bottleneck in cost analysis at the earliest stages (when it would be most useful) because you don’t yet have a working CAD model. By the time you do have a 3D model in place, the design is set, making any changes expensive and time-consuming.
With DFMA software, it doesn’t matter how your CAD model was built, which system you used, or even if you used a CAD model at all. Since DFMA doesn’t need a finished 3D model, you can start your cost analysis on day one, when your results can actually influence your design choices and make a significant impact on your bottom line.
Engineers often must make quick decisions to stay ahead of competitors. With other costing software, this can mean taking the occasional shot in the dark and hoping it pays off.
With DFMA software, however, you have immediate access to more than 30 manufacturing cost models and their associated material libraries. Engineers can quickly compare materials, manufacturing regions, and other factors before making decisions that could impact profitability.
When choosing software solutions, stability and integrity matter. You don’t want to choose a product from a company that could shut down next year, leaving you without ongoing support. Worse, you don’t want to risk your proprietary data by choosing a program from a company that doesn’t understand security.
Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc. has been in business and privately owned since 1983. We use no external venture capital; we’re funded entirely from DFMA sales. This guarantees that each software development iteration is driven by our customers' needs rather than the demands of any third-party investors. Additionally, we maintain an in-house development team for both R&D and software programming, so everything happens under our roof.
Last but not least, we take your data security seriously. We understand that you may have sensitive data you don’t want exposed to other teams in your organization, let alone anyone outside your business. That’s why we designed DFMA software to run entirely within your existing file system and behind your company’s firewall. You retain total control of your privacy and security.
DFMA software saves money by simplifying your parts, manufacturing processes, assembly, and servicing requirements through better product design. If you’re starting a new project or you want to strengthen your profit on an existing product, contact us.
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DFMA: SHOULD COSTING
DFMA: PRODUCT SIMPLIFICATION
