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Results o`f Design for Manufacturability

New Article: The Most Advanced Product Development Course
by the author of all 50 DFM article in this site

 

DFM RESULTS

The following case studies show the results of the best of Dr. Anderson’s client engagement in each of the following categories with some links to how to get those results:

BEST RESULTS AFTER SEMINAR:   Lockheed Martin called in Dr. Anderson to present his unique seminar, Concurrent Engineering and Build-to-Order for Low-Volume/High-Mix Environments, which teaches effective ways to greatly lower cost and improve responsiveness.

Results. Seven months later, Reuters reported that: “Lockheed Martin Corp. has won an $8 billion U.S. defense contract for global logistics support services for special operations forces,”


BEST RESULTS AFTER WORKSHOP: After a DFM seminar, GE Transportation had Dr. Anderson facilitate a workshop for GE's new diesel engine development to satisfy the strict new Tier-4 low-pollution standards.

Results: when this successful engine hit the market, GE got 1,000 locomotive orders and its main competitor, EMD (founded by General Motors), couldn’t compete any more.

• Key lesson cited
: Dr. Anderson’s recommendation to create a microclimate to implement DFM principles in a project room with frequent team interactions was was cited by GE management in the following quote that appeared in a Union Pacific article saying: "We set up mission-based teams with key leaders from different initiatives and literally pushed them together in the same room day after day." 


BEST  COST REDUCTIONS. An industrial processing equipment manufacturer reached their 40% cost reduction goal after the first seminar and workshop on Design for Manufacturability & Concurrent Engineering.
            Based on that this first success, the company brought Dr. Anderson in to provide DFM seminars and workshop for four more divisions, three of which were acquisitions whose product development process was expected to follow his DFM&C methodologies.

To learn how to reduce cost by 50% or more, see article on cost reduction or visit http://www.halfcostproducts.com/
 

BEST BUSINESS MODEL SHIFTS

• Design of Industrial Equipment. This success, in the above company, also changed their business model from after-market sales to new product development, based on the DFM principles persented herein.

LG Electronics. On four trips to Korea in the late 1990's, Dr. Anderson’s management consulting and executive education recommended that they shift away from (a) their commodity-level products, like their Goldstar brand (the “G” in “Lucky Goldstar”) and (b) low-profit contract manufacture job. He recommended that they rationalization  their products to focus on the most profitable ones and take advantage of their vertically integrated capabilities to build leading-edge products. Today LG sells premium LG brand of plat panel displays and other leading-edge products.  Of all clients, LG has learned and applied the most from what Dr. Anderson taught them about prioritization from his  instruction on Product Line Rationalization  or see all the graphs in Appendix A in  all DFM book editions.

Build-to-Order of Industrial Equipment.  The above case study was a business model shift for Hoffman Engineering (division of Pentair), which started with two of their executives attending Dr. Anderson's public seminar on Build-to-Order & Mass Customization, bringing in-house his customized BTO & Mass Customization seminar and then Dr. Anderson took Hoffman executives to see another company featured in his Mass Customization edition (the Rossflex operation of Ross Controls).
 

BEST IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING AFTER SEMINAR. An innovative Aerospace/Defense company arranged a two-day DFM seminar, which had twice the sign-ups as the class could handle. The day after the seminar, the company summarized the attendees’ answers to the question: “What applies most from the seminar?” on an implementation spreadsheet with columns for: the principle summary, driving factors, corrective actions, impacts from inadequate action, and implementation leader.

For DFM seminar agenda, see: http://www.design4manufacturability.com/DFM_seminars.htm

MOST REPEAT ENGAGEMENTS. The results of initial client engagements were so successful that the following companies arranged Dr. Anderson for repeat engagements: eight at Hewlett-Packard,six at Emergency-One Firetrucks, five at GE, four at Korea’s LG Electronics (see above), four at Boeing, four at BAE Systems, four at Smiths Aerospace (now GE Aircraft), three at Ball Aerospace, three at FMC, two at NCR, two at Emerson Electric, two at Freightliner, two at John Deere, and two at United Technologies Corporation.

Dr. Anderson’s clients are listed by category and then by number of engagements at http://www.design4manufacturability.com/clients.htm
 

GREATEST SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS TOPICS AT ONE LOCATION
Emergency One (a firetruck manufacturer) brought Dr. Anderson back for the following training and workshops:
• two-day seminar on Mass Customization
• one-day implementation workshop on Mass Customization
• two-day seminar on Design for Manufacturability and Concurrent Engineering
• one-day standardization workshop
• two fixturing workshops, one for cabs and one for bodies.

LONGEST CONSULTING ENGAGEMENT. The robot division of PRI/Automation brought in Dr. Anderson for six years to do consulting ranging from improving existing products to generating concepts studies for a third-generation robot, when there was no second! This engagement included a two-day DFM seminar showing many company examples.

GREATEST INVESTMENT BASED ON DR. ANDERSON’S PRINCIPLES:
The Hoffman Engineering brand of Pentair brought Dr. Anderson in as they were planning a leading-edge plant to build-to-order a wide range of mass-customized and standard electrical enclosures on-demand without needing forecasts or inventory. Then Hoffman build a $ 30.000.000 greenfield plant based on his principles, which are summarized at http://www.build-to-order-consulting.com/
                After the plant was built, the operation was so impressive that he personally arranged to lead two public plant tours for the Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME) after his one-day BTO seminar on “Spontaneous Build-to-Order” seeL   http://www.build-to-order-consulting.com/S-BTO-MC.htm .  This plant was featured in a Fortune magazine article: “Where Build-to-Order Works Best,” in Fortune 500 issue dated April 26, 1999..
            As guest editor for a special mass customization issue of the Agility Forum’s journal, Agility & Global Competition (Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring 1998), he arranged for Hoffman managers to write the article, “Mass Customization Comes to Hoffman.” Faxes or scans of this articles are available on request. A summary of the Agility Forum article is on-line at http://www.build-to-order-consulting.com/hoffman.htm

FOUR CONSEQUENCES FROM NOT PURSUING THESE METHODOLOGIES

These companies not only missed the most advanced methodologies
but also received no challenges to any of their counter-productive behaviors.
 

• two Concentrated Solar Power companies (CSP) went bankrupt after contacting Dr. Anderson but not pursuing any training or consulting.

• A Silicon Valley start-up went bankrupt after holding a seminar but cutting it short and cancelling the DFM session of a DFM course because they thought it was “preaching to the choir.”

 

Companies are at risk if they keep designing just for function in the typical scenario presented the first section
in the Concurrent Engineering article  and keep getting the consequences, in the section section. 
The rest of the article shows how to eliminate these problems and risks using Concurrent Engineering


RELATED PAGES:

New DFM webinar: Leading-edge; Customized; Low-cost; Reach unlimited audiences anywhere;
                              Schedule quickly; and Have time to work between4 four-hour sessions 

The applicability page shows the seminar "take aways" that can be applied right away by engineers and managers at: http://design4manufacturability.com/applicability.htm 

The Relevance page shows how Dr. Anderson’s seminars & workshops are customized for practicality and relevance at http://design4manufacturability.com/relevance.htm  .

 

For more information, call Dr. Anderson at 1-805-924-0100
or e-mail him at anderson@build-to-order-consulting.com.
To explore the opportunities of these techniques at your company call or email
with your name, title, company, phone, types of products, and needs/opportunities

   

Contact information:

  Dr. David M. Anderson, P.E.,
fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers
www.design4manufacturability.com
phone: 1-805-924-0100
fax: 1-805-924-0200
e-mail:
anderson@build-to-order-consulting.com

copyright © 2024 by David M. Anderson

Book-length web-site on Half Cost Products: www.HalfCostProducts.com

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