Enhancing the product development process through a sequential approach part III: Manufacturing

This is the final and concluding part of this series dedicated to presenting a comprehensive approach to consumer product design using DfX principles. This paper focuses on dealing with design principles that enhance the usability of a product in general. In this context, it deals with factors such as designing for maintainability and designing for ease of use. It also addresses the all important concept of design review, by means of which quality can be engineered into the product at the design stage itself. Finally, the paper also addresses the issue of paramount importance: cost in order to maximize profits. The issue of demand forecasting in order to enable product managers to predict future product demand is also addressed at some length towards the end of this paper. This paper serves to act as an all important link between product design, demand forecasting and facilities design.