Cost Reduction Tips for Design Engineers

Part cost is one of the most essential factors affecting the part design in CNC machining industry. Manufacturers aim minimum cost to achieve maximum profit. Scrapping of parts in the manufacturing process is one of the biggest reasons that increase the production cost. Companies take some precautions to prevent this situation. These precautions are, generally, based on designing phase of the part unless customers want to compromise from quality of the products. Mechanical designing is a main and critical way to apply cost-reduction process. To do this, manufacturers apply design to manufacture method. There are several ways to perform this method.

One of the ways to reduce the production cost is to avoid complex and challenging geometries when designing the part. Complex geometries are troublesome and time-consuming parts to machine on CNC machines. To explain with an example, unless it is absolutely necessary, being produced special cutting tools to machine parts designed in a way that standard cutting tools cannot machine increases the cost significantly. It also increases the cost per hour of the machines, as the machining times of parts with difficult geometries will be longer. Therefore, as far as possible design engineers should avoid from complex and challenging geometries.

The other way to be followed is that choose materials easy to machine and suitable for design. Choosing a material with high strength in a design that does not require much strength increases the production cost as it will wear the cutting tools to be used during machining more and increase the machining time. Moreover, since the power of the machine will be more during the processing of hard materials, it will increase the cost of the invoices. In relation to this, forcing the machine too much will increase the maintenance costs as it will tighten the maintenance intervals. That is why proper material selection is a vital constraint in designing phase.

The third way which can be kept track of is acting with prototype designing logic. After finalizing the design and analysis processes, being produced the prototype of the part will provide identifying the problems that may be encountered in its production period. This will help revising the design accordingly and preventing the part from becoming scrap during production. This method can be done by using 3-D printing machines.

The last tip which can be used by design engineers is tolerancing of the design. Tolerance is one of the most important elements in the production process. Giving the part unnecessarily precise tolerances increases the problems that may be encountered in the production process and, as a result, the cost. In a detailed manner, using tools or machines that are more precise than necessary means spending more time and effort on the part. Appropriately adjusting the tolerances in the design makes the cost both affordable and predictable.

Acting on CNC machining industry by considering the tips mentioned in the article and following these steps in the design process will significantly reduce both the labor and cost in this process.