Manufacturing Cost Reduction With Design Optimization
÷For instance, manufacturers can reduce the cost of manufacturing through automation. Manufacturers employed in a wide range of fields and industries can also cut costs by a process known as design optimization. Design optimization can be more easily illustrated using the laser cutting industry as an example.
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For example, let"s take a look at a comparatively busy laser cutting business that makes specialty components and parts from materials such as aluminum, copper and steel. Imagine that the company has made the decision to reduce manufacturing costs by using specialized software that will organize their material use and designs in such a way that it will save tons of money. For example, there is a wide range of software packages including CAM (computer aided manufacturing), MRP (manufacturing resource planning) and even ERP (enterprise resource planning), that will plan future jobs, assess them for material requirements, ensure the materials are on site and ready to use, and use the machinery to cut most of the components simultaneously. For example, this might see one piece of steel passed through the system and used to cut parts for several different jobs at once, and the system will have reviewed and arranged all of the items in line with the design optimization program.
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This more cost effective approach will help to reduce the costs of manufacturing because it allows staff to manage a single cutting procedure that subsequently might actually tackle several jobs at once. Remember, any CAM program will allow the laser cutting machine to be trained to behave in different ways throughout the manufacturing process, and this means that ID codes could be etched on the surface of each component to help staff identify which projects they belonged to. Most machines are also capable of handling "nested" cuts which involve loading a number of sheets of the same metal into the machine, and then allowing the laser to follow pre-established cutting lines identified in one plan. The computer program will actually point out these opportunities automatically and inform staff of the needs of the specific job.
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One other way that design optimization is put to work to reduce manufacturing costs is to depend upon the appropriate programs and computer systems to make certain that all products are produced with the least number of parts as is possible. This is something which is actually highly controllable and which can allow manufacturers to÷ ensure their production costs are kept to a bare minimum while the quality of their products remains high. This can be particularly important in an industry such as laser cutting because a decent program will evaluate designs and present methods for concurrent development and the best cutting procedures and design features for any specific job.