(Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc.: Wakefield, RI) -- With U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse providing a video address on manufacturing’s key role in boosting the U.S. economy, the 2011 International Forum on Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) held June 13–15 in Warwick, Rhode Island, quickly established that early product design strategies are the new business model for competitive companies.

Alcoa, Boeing, Microsoft, UTC Power, Westinghouse Electric, and Whirlpool were among the companies reporting reductions in product cycle times and total costs, along with better integration of lean manufacturing and Six Sigma goals through a renewed focus on “upfront engineering.”

“The trend in product design is that upfront engineering, or early analysis, is evolving into a business model,” says John Gilligan, president of Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc. “DFMA can start with rudimentary product shapes, cost them out, point to improvements, and create efficiencies that carry into the whole manufacturing organization.”

Examples of significant, even radical, product savings with DFMA were abundant at the 2011 forum.

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