This article will be explaining the benefit that comes with developing a broad overview of different manufacturing processes and how you can utilise this knowledge in your day to day work. As well as this, from the perspective of career development, you can set yourself apart from other candidates by demonstrating you have a broad scope of knowledge around different manufacturing processes.
I have helped several companies through various stages of the design process, and what separates the successful companies from the unsuccessful is how well they understand the manufacture of their device and the processes involved in each manufacturing step. No matter the complexity of the device being manufactured it is critical that Product Designers keep an open communication channel with the Process Development Engineers – especially when working with specialist 3rd party contractors, as is often the case.
The knock-on effect of ignoring downstream processes
A common problem encountered is that designers can put a lot of effort into the design of one aspect of the device, take for example a complex laser cut Nitinol stent that is to be coated in a polymer. Often, designers can start by designing the stent and ordering prototypes before consulting with an expert in the field of coatings. This can lead to certain design features being included that will make life difficult for your next vendor. For example, overly thick struts on the frame, that may rule out dip coating - one of the more scalable and cost-effective coating application methods. The effect of this? The Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) increases dramatically for your product and it can put you at a serious disadvantage depending on the price point you were hoping to enter the market at, or if you require a low cost good, you now need to redesign your frame again, re-order prototypes and may not have obtained useful data from your first design iteration impacting your timeline and targets substantially.
“That’s watch making not tool making”
A simple example of how I employed this design for manufacture principle in my own position is through dealing with tooling vendors. I complete a lot of process development activities particularly around proof of concept (POC) manufacture of prototypes and then eventual scale up with released procedures etc. This can involve thousands of euro in tooling depending on required quantities of parts per week and required process aids. One of the first tasks I was given as a green engineer out of college was tool design for projects, an important task in a fast-paced work environment as an error in tooling design can delay a project by 3 – 4 weeks minimum, as well as the added issue of losing favour with our stake holders through missed deadlines. I recognised the importance of this to my team, and I also knew how best to arm myself for the task – I needed to understand how tools were made.
The design part is easy, anyone can create a part on SolidWorks to meet a purpose - but designing something that makes the vendors life easy while still meeting its functional requirements is the challenge; and this applies to every facet of engineering. This is the challenge for medical device designers and it only grows in difficultly with device complexity.
In order to up-skill myself on tool design I completed several site visits to our vendor and saw the machines and processes used by them. It gave me enough background information that I could design reasonably easy to manufacture parts. If I am designing anything that I feel could be simplified I will have a quick 15-minute call with our vendor and run through the 3D model and its function. Just recently we were reviewing a part which contained a small insert to aid in positioning about 0.5 x 2mm in size. I was told “that is watch making not tool making”. It can be embarrassing when someone points out faults in your design but actively seeking feedback is what separates the good engineers from the average, and it is exactly how you can reduce non-value add design iterations. That 15-minute call probably reduced the part price by a few hundred as well as well giving me greater confidence that the part will function as we need it to – a small price to pay for some slight embarrassment!
The takeaway from this example isn’t that you need to become an expert in every aspect of the manufacturing processes of a device, but you do need to familiarise yourself with them. As an R&D Engineer being able to design a part while knowing limitations of your manufacturer’s is an invaluable skill – and being able to demonstrate this knowledge in an interview setting will differentiate you massively from your competitors.
I will be providing more information relating to some manufacturing processes in the coming weeks which should serve as a great resource to any young Graduate Engineers hunting for their first few positions! Please subscribe below to keep up to date.
Comments