Design using available assets: A paradigm shift in design for manufacture

How can design for manufacture be implemented very early on a design timeline, for example, when only the product function is known? Our response to this question is embodied in an approach to design for manufacture based on the notion of design using available assets. By design using available assets, we mean assembling both the product and its manufacturing process from existing resources; therefore, design for manufacture becomes the selection of these resources. We recognize three levels of abstraction in categorizing available assets: the function level, the concept level, and the component level. The function level is applicable in the earliest stages of design, so with our approach, we come one step closer to truly concurrent product and process development. Our approach is embodied by both a computer support tool and a method for its use. With this method, we use our computer tool to identify, evaluate, and select potential manufacturing alternatives for products modeled at different levels of abstraction. In this paper, we first present the theoretical basis of our approach (our frame of reference) then we discuss its computer implementation. Finally, we highlight some of our tool's potential uses by exploring the selection of manufacturing processes and materials for a cover plate component from a design of an aircraft evacuation system. Issues captured here are the richness of multiobjective selection under uncertainty. Because this example illustrates just one step of our approach, our focus remains on our method rather than on the results per se.