| DFMA achieves significant goals and demonstrates measurable results | Goals of ErgoDFMA  Adding ergonomics to the DFMA process has specific goals that are concurrent with those of the overall DFMA process:
Minimize ergonomics risk factors Minimize assembly time and cost Minimize design time and cost Maximize product quality (decrease faulty assemblies) Maximize process reliability (decrease process failures) Maximize product usability (decrease failures in user environment)
| Results of published case studies Boothroyd, Dewhurst and Knight have summarized a number of studies that examined the outcome of the DFMA process. They document a substantial average reduction in a number of the metrics of interest. Metric | Average Reduction (%) | Number of Studies | Assembly time | 61.2 | 31 | Assembly cost | 41.4 | 18 | Fixtures/assembly tools | 71.0 | 4 | Material cost | 48.5 | 2 | Manufacturing cycle time | 57.3 | 6 | Product time to market | 47.5 | 4 |
Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly, Boothroyd, Dewhurst and Knight, Marcel Dekker, New York, NY, 1994. |