Integrated Design Methodology for Improved System Manufacturability

System prototypes and technology demonstrators are usually designed for one-time manufacturing. Issues related to later phases of the lifecycle start to appear when prototypes are consolidated into a product baseline. It is, therefore, beneficial for systems engineers to account for later phases of the project starting from its early stages, such as concept design and evaluation. We present a quantitative methodology with human decision-makers in the loop based on the design for manufacturing considerations, to support systems engineers in bridging the gap between the design phase and later phases of the lifecycle of the development of a complex system. The developed methodology consists of three phases main stages: “product definition and production context identification,” “design alternatives investigation,” and “analysis,” considering critical manufacturing phases and parameters. This paper demonstrates the proposed methodology on a case study of the design of a medical device for wheelchair support. Our approach allowed us to reduce the cost and time of production by 18.3 and 16.8 percent, respectively, by identifying areas of improvement of the design that accounted for manufacturing and assembly considerations. In the paper, we discuss the advantages and limitations of our approach and identify possibilities for future work in the area.