Flexible Automation and Integrated Manufacturing 1994

ISBN Print: 978-1-56700-018-4

A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO DESIGNING FOR MAINTAINABILITY

DOI: 10.1615/FAIM1994.420
pages 419-426

Sinopsis

In the ongoing quest for continuous improvement in manufacturing operations, engineers who follow the precepts of concurrent engineering are very concerned about system or product maintainability. There is a good reason for this concern; while features like form, fit, and function are important in defining quality for the customer, product maintainability cannot be overlooked either. In fact, managers and engineers have long realized that even products that are extremely functional cannot be successfully marketed if they have the tendency to breakdown or fail every so often?! Therefore, rather than predicting how the equipment will fail, the effort of maintainability will be to make manufacturing systems and products as easy and inexpensive to fix as possible when they fail. To help achieve this objective, the paper provides practical maintainability guidelines that would exemplify the benefits of design for maintainability (DFMAIN) at both the factory level and to the average consumer. These guidelines are used to develop a simplified method for rating DFMAIN characteristics. A rating worksheet is generated, tested and illustrated by practical examples.