Development of design for manufacture

The development of term "Design for Manufacture" dates back to the late 1970s when Boothroyd and Dewhurst developed a methodology for evaluating the assembly of mechanical structures. In 1984, General Electric's Center of Excellence in Electronics developed a computerized approach to evaluating electronics board level assembly called "Manufacturability Rating System" (MRS). The beginnings of the Design for Manufacture have seen many different attempts to provide a tool for specific purposes, but have not witnessed a total systems approach. During the 1980s and 1990s, terms like Design for Test, Design for the Environment, and Design for X have appeared as methodologies for solving the problem of making designs more compatible with manufacturing. This paper considers the direction of early Design for Manufacture tools and their impact on the development of tools that evaluate the entire product stream and address the total product cycle.