Design for manufacture

0701

✅ Why this step makes your design real—and buildable

You’ve shaped a great concept. Now it needs to work in the real world.

Design for Manufacture (DfM) is about making your product manufacturable—efficiently, reliably, and at scale. This step helps you simplify complexity, reduce production risk, and design within real-world tooling, process, and supplier constraints.

DfM turns “We like it” into “We can make it.”

📘 What you’ll learn

  • How to adjust your design for manufacturability without compromising function
  • Which materials, processes, and tolerances align with your scale and cost
  • Where early design choices introduce unnecessary difficulty or cost
  • How to collaborate effectively with suppliers and production partners

🛠️ Tools and methods

  • DfM Checklist by Process

    Injection moulding? Machining? Sheet metal? Match rules to methods.

  • Part Count Reduction Review

    Fewer parts = less cost, less failure, faster assembly.

  • Draft, Radius & Wall Review

    Ensure your model meets toolmaking standards—before tooling begins.

  • Tolerance & Fit Planning

    Specify what really needs to be tight—and where flexibility is fine.

  • Feedback from Fabricators

    Share early drawings with manufacturers to catch issues early.

⚠️ Watch-outs

  • Over-complication. Complexity creeps in. DfM strips it back.
  • Assuming your CAD is final. Most early CAD needs tweaking for tool paths and fixtures.
  • Wrong process for the part. Some shapes scream “3D print” but need to be moulded. Know the signs.
  • Skipping supplier input. They’ve seen hundreds of products—ask them what fails.

💡 Advice from the factory floor

“We loved the design. Then we found out it needed five sliding cores and a hand-placed insert. A 20-minute chat with a moulder could’ve saved weeks.”

– Manufacturing Consultant, Consumer Products

💡 Use colour-coded CAD copies to highlight DfM tweaks—it's a fast way to brief teams on what’s changed and why.

🔗 Helpful links & resources

✍️ Quick self-check

  • Have we reviewed the design with our target manufacturing process in mind?
  • Do we understand material, tolerance, and assembly constraints?
  • Are suppliers aligned—or at least consulted?
  • Are changes traceable and intentional, not reactive?

🎨 Visual concept (optional)

Illustration: A 3D CAD model with overlaid callouts like “Needs draft”, “Undercut here?”, and “Wall too thin”. A designer discusses these notes with a manufacturing partner on a video call, while a printed copy on the table has sticky notes like “Switch to snap-fit” and “Combine these parts?”.

Visual shows how DfM bridges design and production by making thoughtful, intentional trade-offs early.
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