Jeremy Ridley THUMB

Jeremy Ridley

Design

Industrial Design

Engineering

Prototype Development

<p>Designing a great product doesn’t stop at user experience. If it can’t be manufactured efficiently, or adapted to real-world supply chain conditions, it won’t succeed. <br></p>
<p>That’s where <a href="https://www.6sigma.us/six-sigma-in-focus/design-for-manufacturing-dfm/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Design for Manufacturing (DFM)</a> comes in. In today’s volatile manufacturing landscape, DFM helps teams design products that can be built reliably, at scale, without late-stage rework, sourcing delays, or cost surprises. </p>
<p>Done well, DFM is a strategic lever. It shapes architecture decisions early, de-risks downstream execution, and helps products move from prototype to production without getting stuck in endless pivots or tooling resets. </p>

<p>Delve's experts in insights, strategy, design, and engineering can guide you through an end-to-end innovation process that delivers results.</p>

Our Services Page: Product Design and Development (text only)

<p>If you're navigating <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/11/how-maersk-designed-a-more-resilient-supply-chain" target="_blank">sourcing volatility</a>, tight timelines, or regulatory complexity, you’ll also want to <strong><a href="#download">download our white paper</a></strong> on how to build&nbsp;resilient product development pipelines&nbsp;that flex under pressure, without breaking. While this article focuses on&nbsp;designer-level DFM practices, the white paper lays out a&nbsp;systems-level strategy&nbsp;for aligning design, sourcing, and engineering decisions early, so you can flex under pressure without derailing your roadmap.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Designing for manufacturing is a shared responsibility.&nbsp;Engineers and designers both play critical roles. But for designers, DFM often requires a mindset shift. These eight essentials will help you embed DFM into your process and design stronger, more production-ready products.&nbsp;</p>

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<h2>1. Sketch Early, Then Sketch Again</h2>
<p>Don’t wait for a polished concept to share your thinking. Sketching early helps uncover design flaws, reduce misalignment, and accelerate decision-making—especially in cross-functional teams where assumptions can easily diverge. </p>
<p>And don’t limit yourself to pen and paper. <a href="https://www.delve.com/insights/how-digital-whiteboards-became-the-design-tool-of-2021" target="_blank">Whiteboards</a>, foam, Lego bricks, rough CAD. Whatever helps visualize an idea fast, use it. These rough sketches aren’t just about alignment. They also reveal part counts and help shape your CAD master model before you’ve sunk time into the wrong direction. </p>
<p>The earlier you externalize your thinking, the faster you’ll spot friction points, and the easier it becomes to fix them before they slow you down. </p>

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<h2>2. Tackle the&nbsp;Hardest Challenges&nbsp;First</h2>
<p>It’s tempting to start with what’s familiar or easy to solve. But in design for manufacturing, it's often smart to start with the toughest, most complex challenges.</p>
<p>At the start of a project, teams have the most momentum: creativity is high, collaboration is fluid, and constraints are still flexible. That makes it the ideal window to take on complex, high-impact design decisions, before stakeholder reviews, documentation, and sunk time make it harder to change course.</p>
<p>Addressing big DFM challenges early also surfaces critical dependencies sooner. You might discover, for example, that a key part requires twelve weeks of lead time for tooling, not six. Catching that now gives you room to adjust your development timeline, rather than scrambling to react later. <br> <br>As you evaluate these early architectural decisions, consider <a href="https://www.assemblymag.com/articles/84713-successful-design-for-assembly" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Design for Assembly (DFA)</a> alongside DFM. Reducing part count and simplifying assembly steps doesn’t just lower cost. It minimizes risk, improves quality control, and makes it easier to scale production without surprises.</p>
<p>Solving difficult DFM challenges early also sharpens alignment across the team. You reduce ambiguity, lock in key architecture and sourcing decisions, and move into later phases with fewer pivots and clearer cost targets.</p>
<p>Use these questions to help surface the hardest DFM challenges early:</p>
<ul><li>What’s the primary function of the device?</li><li>What are your “must have” requirements?</li><li>Where in your design will you have the most constraints?</li><li>What’s your longest <a href="https://www.delve.com/insights/tolerance-stack-up-analysis-calculator" target="_blank">tolerance stack up</a> loop?</li></ul>

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<h2>3. Don’t Be Afraid of New Processes</h2>
<p>Curiosity is baked into our culture at Delve, so we’re always exploring newer technologies, methods, and processes that can save time, cut costs, or reduce downstream risk.</p>
<p>It’s important to choose the most appropriate technology for your product and goals, rather than defaulting to what’s familiar. Techniques like micro 3D weaving or digital light processing (DLP) molding are pushing boundaries in speed, precision, and material properties, but they’re not yet widely used in mainstream production.</p>
<p>These types of emerging processes can open up new design possibilities, but they also require a clear understanding of risk. In general, unfamiliar processes carry more uncertainty. You need to look at the full product life cycle, not just the prototype phase.</p>
<p>Volume matters too. If you’re producing tens or hundreds of units, a conventional method may be the most cost-effective. But at higher volumes, or when performance requirements demand it, a newer process might offer better results over the long run.</p>

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<h2>4. Build Real&nbsp;Manufacturing Partnerships</h2>
<p>Even the best DFM strategy will fail without the right manufacturing partner. You need teams who can deliver precision at scale, flag issues before they cost you, and help you adapt when constraints shift.</p>

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<p>For the Rachio 3, we worked closely with our manufacturing partners to assure there would be a repeatable and high-quality finish for all the parts. We also worked closely with Rachio’s existing vendors to further simplify production.</p>

<p>That kind of collaboration only works if there’s trust. When you have confidence in your vendors, you’re more open to new processes, more willing to act on their input, and better positioned to innovate without second-guessing execution.</p>
<p>But the relationship goes both ways. Be honest about your volumes and timelines. Don’t promise 10 million units when you're really planning for 10,000. Good partners can flex, but only if you give them a clear picture of what they’re working with.</p>

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<h2>5. Design to Absorb Risk, Not Just Minimize It</h2>
<p>DFM isn’t just about reducing risk. It’s about building designs that can absorb it. Because by the time a tolerance issue or sourcing delay shows up, it’s too late to fix it cheaply. </p>
<p>Stress-test your design early. Evaluate the risk of each part, assembly, and process. Don’t assume tolerances will hold. Design like they won’t. That shift alone makes your system more resilient and less dependent on ideal conditions. </p>
<p>Ask hard “what if” questions. What if this part is half an inch shorter? What if the alternate vendor’s spec is slightly off? If any answer leads to failure, you don’t have a design You have a liability. </p>
<p>Robust designs don’t assume perfection. They absorb real-world variance and still perform under pressure. </p>

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<h2>6. If It Hasn’t Been Tested, It Doesn’t Work</h2>
<p>A model that looks perfect on-screen means nothing until it’s been built and tested. Assumptions don’t get validated in CAD. They get exposed in the prototype. </p>
<p>Build in time for testing loops. Each prototype should increase in fidelity, helping you prove performance, validate tolerances, and surface risks while you still have time to act. It’s slower upfront, but far cheaper than redesigning under pressure. </p>
<p>Test each part like it will fail, and use what you learn to improve the final design. If you’re not <a href="https://www.delve.com/insights/eight-essential-prototypes-the-nesting-and-stacking-approach-to-product-development" target="_blank">planning for multiple prototypes</a>, you’re not planning for reality. </p>
<p>Alongside physical prototyping, many teams now incorporate data-driven feedback loops into their DFM process. From predictive simulations and <a href="https://www.sw.siemens.com/en-US/technology/digital-twin/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">digital twins</a> to real-world manufacturing data, these tools help validate decisions early and surface issues long before production begins. </p>

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<h2>7. Always Return to First Principles</h2>
<p>Don’t design based on assumptions. Many product teams box themselves in with artificial constraints—limitations that seem fixed, but aren’t. </p>
<p>To avoid that, break the challenge down to its fundamentals. What does the product actually need to do? What are you assuming without proof? <a href="https://www.techtello.com/first-principles-thinking/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">First principles thinking</a> helps you strip a problem to its core, then rebuild based on logic, user behavior, and manufacturability, not habit. </p>
<p>Take <a href="https://www.bresslergroup.com/work/phlex/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Phlex,</a> for example. They came to us asking for a pair of smart goggles with fitness tracking. But when we unpacked the request, the real goal was clear: they needed a swim-friendly wearable that delivered training insights, not necessarily goggles. <br></p>

<p>Phlex EDGE is the first goggle-worn fitness tracker, and the first wearable that doesn’t cause drag in the water. It uses haptic feedback to indicate swimmer-specific data.</p>

Case Study: Phlex EDGE

<p>User research confirmed what their team had already suspected: swimmers are fiercely loyal to their goggles. Asking them to switch brands was a nonstarter. So we designed <a href="https://www.bresslergroup.com/work/phlex/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EDGE,</a> a standalone tracking device that clips onto any standard pair of goggles. It delivered the same value, without forcing a behavior change or adding manufacturing complexity.</p>
<p>That’s first principles thinking in action: challenge the ask, reframe the goal, and unlock smarter paths to production. </p>
<h2>8. Design for Sourcing Optionality<br></h2>
<p>Don’t let your architecture lock you into a brittle supply chain. Designing for sourcing optionality means building in the flexibility to swap suppliers or substitute parts, without triggering a full redesign.</p>
<p>Use common interface standards, avoid unnecessary customization, and qualify secondary sources early. It’s a mindset shift that protects your development timeline and keeps you moving when availability shifts or vendors fall through.</p>
<p>It’s also a direct link between product design and supply chain resilience. You can’t build a flexible pipeline if your design only works one way.</p>

<h2>Bring DFM to the Front of Your Process</h2>
<p>These eight principles aren’t just best practices. They’re what make the difference between a concept that gets stuck in development and a product that reaches the market efficiently, at scale, and without last-minute surprises. </p>
<p>Want to take it further? If you’re dealing with sourcing volatility, aggressive timelines, or complex regulatory constraints, DFM is just the start. <a href="#download" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Download our white paper</a> to learn how to build resilient product development pipelines that flex under pressure, without breaking.</p>
<h4 id="download">Get the white paper:</h4>

<p>Our experts in insights, strategy, design, and engineering guide you through an end-to-end innovation process that delivers results.</p>

Services Page: Product Design and Development at Delve (Our Services)

Download: Design for Manufacturing in a Disrupted World

2024 05 24 DFM 7 things HERO

<p><strong>Even great designs fail when manufacturability gets overlooked. Learn eight principles every designer should apply to reduce risk, avoid waste, and ensure your product is ready for real-world production. Need a broader strategy? <strong><a href="#download">Download our white paper</a></strong> on building resilient product development pipelines.</strong></p>

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Learn 8 DFM principles to reduce risk, avoid rework, and scale faster. Includes real-world tips and a link to our resilient pipeline strategy guide.

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Design for Manufacturing (DFM): 8 Principles Every Product Designer Should Know

Design for Manufacturing (DFM): 8 Principles Every Product Designer Should Know

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