PCB Design: Design for Manufacturability

Prior planning prevents poor performance, they say. With PCBs, effective planning involves Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA). That means thinking past the “sky’s the limit” PCB-design phase to consider the realities of putting a product together.

DFMA principles focus on creating an efficient manufacturing process that lowers production costs. Too often, there’s a disconnect between the PCB-design group and the production folks that results in board designs that are too expensive to produce. We hope this post inspires PCB-design teams to consider manufacturing and assembly issues.

Here are two overviews of the principles of DFMA, an idea originally articulated by manufacturing engineering professors Goeffrey Dewhurst and Jeffery Boothroyd in the 1980s. (Since DFMA is an idea that applies to design, manufacture and assembly in general, there may be terms and concepts in these articles that do not relate specifically to PCBs, but the concepts apply whether you’re making boards or BMWs.)

• 11 Principles and Guidelines in Design for Manufacturing and Assembly

  This is a general overview of the topic from the Engineering Exchange blog, written for a broad manufacturing audience.

• Happy’s Essential Skills: Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, Part 1

  This article covers the topic from the perspective of PCB design.

DFMA at Caltronics
Because Caltronics is a fully integrated operation with design, manufacturing and assembly all under one roof, there’s no disconnect here between design and manufacturing/assembly.

Our designers frequently consult production experts to answer vital questions like: “Is there a less costly IC solution?” or “How can we speed up production and maintain the functionality we need?” Our use of DFMA principles means you can count on us to develop products with high functionality at the lowest possible manufactured cost. We help you get your product to market quickly, too, because our thorough, up-front planning creates a streamlined, cost-effective production process.