Design for Nonassembly: Current Status and Future Directions

Abstract

In this paper, we review the literature on design for nonassembly (DFNA) and the broader literature on design for manufacturing that has design guidelines and metrics applicable to nonassembled products, including both monolithic single-part products and nonassembly mechanisms. Our review focuses on guidelines that apply across multiple manufacturing processes. We identify guidelines and metrics that seek to reduce costs as well as provide differentiated products across a product family. We find that existing DFNA guidelines fall into four main categories pertaining to: (1) geometry and size, (2) material, (3) production process, and (4) clearance and tolerances. We also identify existing product family metrics that can be modified for nonassembled products to capture some aspects of these categories. Finally, we discuss possible future research directions to more accurately characterize the relationships between design variables and manufacturing costs, including investigating factors related to the complexity of operations at particular process steps and across process steps.