Why Should You Have Exceptional Design for Manufacturability (DFM) Skills?

What is Design for Manufacturability?

Design for Manufacturability or DFM for short is a methodology adopted while designing a Printed Circuit Board or PCB, by a PCB designer, with an aim to decrease the overall costs and making PCB manufacturing process smooth and seamless. In other words, DFM is a set of principles that a PCB designer has to keep in mind considering the manufacturing instruments, equipment, limitations, and requirements.

What can go wrong if a PCB Designer doesn’t consider Design for Manufacturability (DFM) Principles?

• Availability of Parts to be used in manufacturing the Printed Circuit Board

There are many different types of printed circuit boards and each requires usage of different kinds of parts. At the time of manufacturing; it can happen that the components and parts, which are required to manufacture the designed PCB, are not available. Hence, as a part of DFM principle, it becomes pretty essential to have a discussion with the parts supplier beforehand itself so as to get the confirmation as to which parts are available and which are not. Once a designer has the knowledge of the availability of parts he/she can design the printed circuit board accordingly. If availability and procurement of the parts are not taken into consideration; it can lead to unnecessarily long wait times in the PCB manufacturing process.

• Crossing the estimated Budget

Majority of the times, the budget providers are not generous enough to provide cover for any additional cost incurred in the overall process of PCB manufacturing +forbes. If Design for Manufacturability is not adhered to; complexities are bound to come up in the fabrication or the manufacturing process of a printed circuit board. This can cause the budget to go overboard.

Going overboard with the budget is not at all good in projects where the number of end-products required or production is extremely high. To maximize cost savings over a large production scale a DFM trick called ‘Panelization’ is used in which multiple boards are manufactured and assembled at once over a single, larger substrate. Incorporating DFM for panelization helps to save a lot, in terms of cost as well as time.  A professional PCB designer has strong DFM experience and can factor in the budget and time constraints easily.

• Increase in the number of Prototypes

Prototypes are, undoubtedly, an essential part of the fabrication process of the printed circuit board. But, it is not recommended to go through an unusually large number of prototypes to achieve the final product. When the number of prototypes is increased; the cost involved in achieving the final product also escalates. More prototypes, not only result in an escalated cost but also it results in a drastic reduction in the inventory of components or parts, further delaying the process to achieve the final product.

• Not all shapes are Moldable

Manufacturers employ and utilize molds to shape and produce a variety of products. If the Design for Manufacturability principles is not adhered to; it can result in production problems. A PCB design’s moldability is a crucial factor for producing quality parts at a sufficient volume. Hence, it becomes must for a PCB designer to have a good round of discussion with the manufacturer before going ahead with designing the printed circuit board.

• Manufacturing time often takes longer than expected

Without incorporating DFM principles, it becomes extremely difficult to set up and communicate a concrete timeline to your client. When DFM principles are adhered to; the time required for designing and fabricating can be easily estimated. This helps to set up a valid timeline. Moreover, clients love to work with a business that is exceptionally good in adhering to the set deadlines. Without DFM, the actual time often increases as compared to the communicated time.

Conclusion

Hence, in order to avoid all the above-mentioned problems; a PCB designer is required to have extraordinary Design for Manufacturability or DFM skills. Incorporating DFM principles in the PCB design process; not only helps to save time but also aids and assists in saving essential resources as well as reducing the overall cost incurred on manufacturing the final product.