DFM–No Engineer Is an Island
Not even a peninsula really. The value of what we do is defined by how it affects others. In that sense, each step of the design chain is a servant and a customer to every other link. Engineers and Designers have a constant need to learn and relate to the lands around them. Whether they fulfill this by commission or omission is the question.
Design for Manufacturing is certainly not a new concept. I recall experiments in which companies placed oscilloscope engineering groups inside manufacturing lines. Yes, they ignored and resisted at first, lining up their cubicle walls so that they could not see out, and no one could see in. But eventually the breakdowns, alarms and chaos drew the cubicle dwellers into the outer world, in which they started to join in the unsnarling of their own creations. Immersed engineers actually experienced some of the unintended consequences of their decisions. The idea of an elegant design grew not only to embrace the end user, but the people who had to build it.
What happened next? Usually, after a brief renaissance, the next engineering manager would eliminate the “distraction” by pulling their staff out, or the new manufacturing manager would cite the same as he or she threw them out. It is hard to change an institutional mindset
But maybe now in an information-rich universe, DFM initiatives can make a difference. Maybe.
(Taken from my editor’s notes for a recent Chip Designer newsletter at http://www.chipdesignmag.com/chipdesigner/2010/11/)