Redesign methodology for mechanical assembly

Abstract

Design for assembly is the concept of carrying out critical thought early in the design stage to create assembly easement at the production stage. In the aerospace industry, products have very long lives, frequently being optimised rather than introducing new products. This has meant older products, which are stable income generators, have not benefited from the latest design for assembly methods and manufacturing technology suffers from obsolescence. It has been established that a large percentage of overall product cost is determined at the design stage; thus, existing products suffer from preloaded costs. This paper takes existing design for assembly methodologies and analyses them with respect to the unique challenges involved in legacy product redesign. Several novel factors that contribute to redesign analysis are identified such obsolescence impact and a holistic operation difficulty assessment. A tool is developed to identify potential redesign for assembly projects. The tool is demonstrated through the application of real data and comparing against business decisions. The tool was found to provide a strong indication of where profitable projects may be launched.