Free DFM reviews for production orders

Did you know that we now offer free DFM (design for manufacturing) reviews for customers expecting to place a production order with us?

Considering a DFM review before moving from prototype quantities to larger production orders can be a game-changer for your product's success. A DFM review can help to minimize costly redesigns and rework during mass production, ultimately saving you both time and money. This optimization ensures that your design is manufacturable at scale, leading to higher-quality products with fewer defects and issues during assembly.

Beyond these benefits, a DFM review also uncovers opportunities to optimize your supply chain, making production ramp-up smoother and scalability more efficient as demand grows.

During the DFM review, we'll even examine your past order(s) of a project to identify ways the design can be improved. We conduct these reviews not only to improve our own efficiency, but also because we're dedicated to delivering the best possible products to our customers.

Here is an example of a recent DFM review we did for a customer:

We had a customer with a moderately complex, double-sided SMT design. They were gearing up for production at a scale of 10,000 units per month, having previously only produced prototype volumes of 10-100 units.

One particular component was driving up assembly costs and slowing down production: a pogo pin that required manual placement onto the board. While manageable for small volumes, this manual process wasn't sustainable for larger-scale production.

Anticipating the transition to mass production, we made a proactive investment in a custom nozzle, allowing us to machine-place the component using our pick and place machines. Additionally, we arranged for the components to be supplied on tape and reel rather than in bulk packaging, a requirement for machine placement. Collaborating with the component manufacturer, we successfully arranged for the parts to be supplied in the required format.

This investment in automation drastically improved our SMT process, eliminating the need for costly manual labor and significantly reducing assembly time. As a result, our customer benefited from reduced assembly costs, and our production throughput increased by over 3 times. Without the customer's notification about their production plans, we may not have allocated the time and resources to implement this automation solution, ultimately improving cost-effectiveness, quality, and efficiency.

If you're interested in us doing a similar type of review of one of your projects, please don't hesitate to reach out!