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DFM Concurrent Costing 2.0 Software from Boothroyd Dewhurst Promotes Should-Cost Analysis in Product Design

Software provides estimates of material and manufacturing costs early in design so OEMs and supply chain partners can investigate alternative ways of making products

Wakefield, R.I., USA, August 29, 2002 – Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc. (Wakefield, R.I.),  developer of the internationally recognized Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA®) software, announces a major new release, DFM Concurrent Costing® Version 2.0. DFM Concurrent Costing 2.0 enables engineering organizations and their supply chains to take a multidisciplinary approach to cost assessment early in product design.

DFM software from Boothroyd Dewhurst identifies the major cost drivers associated with manufacturing and finishing parts. Cost-estimating activity during design encourages engineers to choose the most cost-effective shape-forming process for a part and to consider how individual part features might be modified to optimize manufacturing costs. A key benefit of DFM software is the quick generation of an initial cost estimate at any stage of design in just a few simple steps.

“OEM manufacturers and their suppliers are increasingly turning to should-cost analysis to take costs out of products and get to market faster,” says John Gilligan, president and CEO of Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc. “Our customers’ design teams today cross organizational boundaries and include multiple engineering disciplines and supplier partners, so they find systematic DFM cost analysis fundamental to decision making."

"In addition to utilizing the software for evaluating the cost of internally produced parts, we are leveraging the very special relationships developed with our suppliers and now have a program underway with 15 of them to analyze current parts in order to accurately estimate the cost of future designs," says Cheryl Wood, an engineer and new-product cost analyst at Harley-Davidson Motor Company. "At the core of this program is our understanding that real savings come from helping suppliers reduce the cost of materials and improve the manufacturability of their designs. Boothroyd-Dewhurst software accurately models part costs, providing a quantitative basis for evaluating competing design alternatives."

DFM Concurrent Costing 2.0 offers many useful tools to help achieve cost-effective, highly manufacturable products. Engineers can learn about different materials and processes and evaluate competing part designs down into the cost details of machining setups and custom finishing. The new software offers an expanded amount of information on material and manufacturing processes, adding improved versions of Boothroyd Dewhurst’s formerly standalone cost models for sheet metalworking and machining to cost models for plastic injection molding and diecasting and powder metals.

The updated DFM software gives designers a comprehensive understanding of the costs to manufacture parts by means of turret pressworking, laser and plasma cutting, sheet metal stamping with a variety of dies, machining, structural foam molding, plastic extrusion, injection molding, thermoforming, blow molding, cold and hot die casting, hot forging, powder metal processing, sand casting, and investment casting. The software also features a completely new cost model for producing parts using metal injection molding.

DFM Concurrent Costing 2.0 includes a new Machine Library, which provides machine characteristics and process rates, and fields for adding pictures of equipment and descriptive notes. Machine operation times and tooling costs can be edited, and the library can be expanded and fully customized to add categories of information specific to the manufacturing location. As in previous versions of DFM software, a thorough help system illustrated with graphics explains the details of all shape-forming processes and operations. Two new report formats generate customized analysis results for engineers to print out and distribute for review.

If desired, engineers can use 3-D part geometry data for cost estimating by importing solid models into DFM Concurrent Costing from all the major CAD/CAM software systems, including Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA, Unigraphics, I-DEAS, AutoCad, SolidWorks, and many others. Import of part geometry data, and STL, DXF, OBJ, IGES, and VRML files, is supported by the SolidView/Pro 3-D viewer from Solid Concepts, Inc. (Valencia, Calif.). DFM Concurrent Costing 2.0 operates in Microsoft® Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT.

About DFMA® software

DFMA consists of complementary Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Manufacture (DFM) software. Engineers use DFA software to reduce the assembly cost of a product by consolidating parts into elegant and multifunctional designs. DFM software then helps engineers quickly judge the cost of producing the new design. Used together, DFM and DFA software give engineers an early cost profile of product designs, providing a basis for planning and decision making. When performed in the earliest stages of concept design, DFMA analysis has the potential to reduce manufacturing and other product life-cycle costs before they are locked in.

About Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc.

Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc., is a winner of the 1991 National Medal of Technology Award, presented by President George H. Bush. Other recipients of the award have included William Gates of Microsoft Corp. and Kenneth Olsen of Digital Equipment Corp. Boothroyd Dewhurst is dedicated to continually developing the DFMA knowledge base through its integrated software programs, workshops, consulting services and international conferences. For more information, contact Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc., 138 Main Street, Wakefield, R.I. 02879, USA. Tel. (401) 783-5840. Fax (401) 783-6872. Web site: www.dfma.com. E-mail: info@dfma.com.

Windows is a copyright of Microsoft Corp. DFMA is a registered trademark of Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.