DFM and DFA Approach on Designing Pressure Vessel 1 A.R. ISMAIL, 2 S.C. ABDULLAH, 1 A.H. A. A. MANAP, 1 K.SOPIAN, 1 M. M. TAHIR, 1 I.M.S. USMAN, 1 D.A.WAHAB 1 Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), National University of Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, MALAYSIA 2 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, MALAYSIA Abstract: - This case study shows how the effect of implementation of the Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) in product development process. Pressure vessel was selected as the example in this case study. The pressure vessel design was obtained from one of the oil and gas company in Malaysia. Information gathering and data collection were conducted by interview and observation. Information such as design and component development time was analyzed and modeled to ensure the effect of implementation of this approach to product development cycle and design efficiencies. The method used for this case study is the Boothroyd and Dewhurst method. Using this method, the existing design of the pressure vessel was modified by incorporating the design for manufacture and assembly requirements. The approach enables a shorter product development cycle time through reduction in manufacturing and assembly time. Apart from that, the overall cost of the pressure vessel was reduced. The implementation of this approach has improved the company’s performance and return of investment. Key-Words: - DFM, DFA, concurrent engineering, pressure vessel, product development cycle 1 Introduction The technology advancement and improvement in our industry, improve the demand to the product. To fulfill this demand, the speed and capacity of production by a company must be enhanced. An analysis of the world market has shown that the customer requirements regarding functions and quality of products are continuously increasing but the customers are not willing to pay more for better products, neither do they accept prolonged delivery terms. Customers are becoming more and more demanding and their requirements are changing all the time. “Customer is the king” is becoming the motto of today [1]. The implementation of DFA and DFM led to enormous benefits including simplification of products, reduction of assembly and manufacturing cost, improvement of quality and reduction of time to market [2]. Therefore, that is important to any company to improve productivity and their ability to fulfill customer requirement without neglecting the quality of the product that will be produced. DFM is a systematic methodology that will reduce the manufacturing cost through reducing the overall parts of the product and redesign the product parts, so the product will be easy to handle and assemble [3]. DFM is a systematic procedure to maximize the use of manufacturing processes in the design of components and DFA is a systematic procedure to maximize the use of components in the design of a product. The aim of DFMA is to maximise the use of manufacturing processes and minimise the number of components in an assembly or product [4]. 2 Methodology Data are obtained through interviewing and observation at selected pressure vessel manufacturer’s company. Among of these data are the design of pressure vessel, manufacturing process, manufacturing and assembly time and the information that related to the standard has been using to construct the pressure vessel. After that, the design analysis was conducted towards pressure vessel. Then, the modeling of the pressure vessel will be conducted by Solid Works software. From that modeling, the DFM and assembly analysis will be conducted towards that modeling, according to Boothroyd and Dewhurst method. From the current design, alternative model will be suggested through inserting the design for manufacturing and assembly elements to the pressure vessel. Analysis by using Boothroyd and Dewhurst method are implemented to the existing and the new design. Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on SYSTEM SCIENCE and SIMULATION in ENGINEERING (ICOSSSE '08) ISSN: 1790-2769 147 ISBN: 978-960-474-027-7