Q-4. What is redesign? What are the steps to be followed to reduce the cost in the existing part or assembly?
Ans: Concept of redesign refers to changing or improving the existing product characteristic by design or material improvement. Product may be a single part of an assembly. Based on market requirements or to take advantage of new facilities, it's necessary to redesign products.
Steps to be followed to reduce the cost in the existing part or assembly:
Product development starts from design. During the design phase, the product should be designed in such a way that it can be easily manufactured with existing facilities. Hence, excess cost can be reduced.
Assembly or part manufacturing cost can be reduced by choosing the right manufacturing process for the product.
Also, selection of the manufacturing process is based on material, quantity of product and other design parameters,like dimensions, tolerance etc.
Using too tight tolerance leads to extra processing cost. Hence, if possible then try to avoid tight tolerance. Tolerance at MMC condition helps to reduce the cost because of the bonus tolerance region.
For small quantity production, large tolerance should be provided. It will help to produce lesser quantity parts without using any high facilities.
In product design, unnecessary product features should be eliminated to reduce manufacturing time and cost.
Using standard tools and components in design helps to reduce manufacturing cost, because it promotes the use of existing tools and components available in the market.
In assembly, decreasing the number of components helps to reduce assembly cost and assembly time. Hence, if possible, try to reduce assembly components via redesigning existing components.
Unnecessary post processing should be avoided like coating, surface finishing etc if not required.
In the assembly process, assembly sequence generation is an important part. Choosing the best assembly sequence can help to reduce time, unnecessary parts or tool movement and reduces the cost.
Example: In manufacturing process selection of connecting rod, sand casting and forging - both processes are suitable processes. But in the sand casting process, comparatively more tolerance is achieved than the forging process. Also, in forging, cost per product is less compared to sand casting, hence choosing forging is beneficial to reduce the cost.
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