Robust Design

Robust Design

For mechanical product development - Robust Design is the discipline of reducing sensitivity towards part-part variation in production. Having a robust design will generally allow a company to improve cost and performance of products as well as having a more controlled product development process with bigger predictability. Robustness is achieved by looking into disciplines like kinematics, structure calculations, DFM, DFA and tolerances.

KTW and RD8 drives Robust Design through a framework of 8 systematic and objective design disciplines:

A framework piloted by 8 systematic and objective design disciplines

  • KINEMATICS - ASSESSING PRODUCT ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN QUALITY

  • FUNCTIONS - PREDICTIVE PERFORMANCE MODELING, SENSITIVITY AND DPMO

  • COUPLINGS - ADVERSE INTERLINKAGE BETWEEN MODULES, BODIES, PARTS AND FUNCTIONS

  • TOLERANCES - SPECIFICATION MATCH TO CAPABILITY + QUALITY OF DEFINITION

  • STRUCTURE - PERFORMANCE LEVEL OF LOAD CASES

  • MATERIALS - MATERIAL SELECTION FIT FOR PURFOSE AND PAIRING

  • DFM - MANUFACTURABILITY MATURITY

  • DFA - ASSEMBLY STATES AND STABILITY, INTERFACES AND ORIENTATION

Advantages of Robust Design

Greener

  • ENABLEMENT OF GREEN MATERIALS (50~100%)

    - Replacement of virgin materials with recycled alternatives or bioplastics

  • REDUCTION OF MATERIAL CONSUMPTION (5~80%)

    - Over-engineering

    - Geometry optimization

    - Scrap reduction in production and assembly

  • UPCYCLING & CIRCULAR DESIGN

    - Improving ability for service, spare parts and disassembly

  • DOWNSTREAM ACTIVITIES (5~20%)

    - Lower energy consumption of products

    - Increase product lifetime

  • GREEN PART PRODUCTION (5~30%)

    - CO2 reductions by production changes or production efficiency gains

SIMPLER

  • COMPLEXITY REDUCTION

    - Reduction of number of tolerances

    - Reduction of tolerance levels

    - Reduction of functional surface areas

    - Reduction of system dependencies

    - Simplified assembly

    - Optimization and standardization of interfaces & modules

    - Commonalization - Standarization across products and platforms

  • Cost Reduction (5~30%)

    - Reduction of scrap & customer complaint rates/recalls

    - Enablement of low-cost suppliers

    - Enablement of low-cost production processes

    - Volume consolidation / modularization

    - Reduction of development time

    - Reduction of ramp-up time / iterations

    - Reduction of time used in assembly(assembly/automation improvements by design)

    - Less CAPEX investments - low cost equipment & tools

FASTER

  • REDUCTION OF DEVELOPMENT TIME (10~50%)

    Reduction of development timeline & resources by;

    - Systematic work with 8 leading indicators for the robustness of a mechanical design

    - Design guides/best practices

    - Robust Design Productivity tools/software

    - People - talent development

  • BETTER PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE (5~50%)

    - Enablement of faster assembly times

    - Enablement of optimized automation levels

  • REDUCTION OF RAMP-UP TIME(10~50%)

    - Reduction of engineering detours

    - Reduction of tooling iteration

    - Reduction of noise factors(for assembly, equipment and product)

SMARTER

  • INCREASED PRODUCT PERFORMACE (5~50%)

    Examples;

    - Increased energy efficiency

    - Increased product lifetime

    - Increased weight performance

  • NEW LEAPS OF INNOVATION

    - New patents

    - Radical optimization of main product functions

    - Optimization across product-man-machine

    - Data dreiven product development

  • INCREASED PERCERIVED QUALITY (5~50%)

    Examples;

    - Reduced backlash

    - Improved accuracy

    - Improved aesthetics/split lines

    - Improved consitency across products

  • INTRODUCTION OF NEW FEATURES

    - Improved success rate of new product platform dev.

    - Improved success rate of new technology introduction

    - Improced success rate of new features/modules

 

Six Theta
Methodology