Engineering Design Question !?

Question

what Communication is there between the designer and the munufacturing engineering who will be planning how the product is to be made in the workshop ?

Answer 1

Where I work, here's how the interactions between R&D and Manufacturing happen. I'm going to lump Test Engineering in with Manufacturing, since it's up to them to make sure the products are built correctly.



- Once a schematic has been finalized, Test Engineering is invited to a review. This is where they can request additional test points on the circuit, and express any other concerns.



- After PCB layout, Test Engineering and a PCB Specialist from Manufacturing are invited to another review. Here, they look at the manufacturability of the board and begin to consider any special fixturing that might be needed.

- The PCB group runs the design through a program that performs a Design For Manufacturability (DFM) check. This looks for components that might be too close together or to the edge of a board.

- After boards are ordered and received, a low volume prototype job is run. Manufacturing then inspects the workmanship of the boards. They may need to adjust the soldering process, solder paste stencils, parts prep, or adjust the order of the build sequence. Any design issues are fed back to Engineering to address.



This might go on for a couple of board revisions. The last step prior to releasing a board for production is another build job where Manufacturing runs it without any additional input from Engineering. This verifies that the board can be built on a repeatable basis, that all of the documentation they need is in place, and that all of the test programs work. The results of that build are reviewed between Manufacturing and R&D. If everyone is happy, then the project is signed off and the board goes into production.



That's a very simplified view of how it's done at my place of employment. The main thing is we try to get Manufacturing (and other disciplines) involved early in any new design. Trust me, it makes life a lot easier on the back end.



Good luck.



Greetings from Austin, TX

Ken

Answer 2

That varies a great deal from company to company. A well run company makes it a point to have all those affected by a design to have some input into the design.



You would be surprised at some of the well known companies that give lip service to this policy but then let one group or another have the final say. I know of one that lets the sales department control designs to the detriment of the quality of the product.

Answer 3

Only the fabrication drawings (marked released for construction) is sent to the shopfloor . These drawings show fabrication details as well as quality control measures required to achieve fits and tolerance/dimensional accuracy,surface finish grade, heat treament ,, weldingprocess/ details,(WPS/PQR) ,material specification , testing requirement as per fabrication codes/standards. etc .to for the product .Based on these specific requirements, the manufacturing units select process of manufacture( various equipment & process and their sequence,the machines to be used etc), in their production planning and control section and release job sheets to the shop floor. Often, formal design change notices are also issued to the shop, before issue of job sheets, if manufacturing unit or /marketing section( feedback )recommend/suggest changes for product development or specificneeds of customer indicated during final drawing approval stage.( Generally .two types of drawings are by designer.(1) design drawings and (2) fabrication drawings , Design drawings are not sent to the shop floor)