INTRODUCTION TO COMPONENT INTEGRATION HIDDEN COSTS IN EVERY COMPONENT

126 COMPONENT INTEGRATION USING HIGH INTEGRITY PROCESSES quantification is oversimplified and leaves out much of the true financial burden. From a total-cost standpoint, the life cycle of a component is as follows: Designed Drafted Quoted Sourced to an internal or external supplier Tooled Approved Manufactured Packaged Inventoried Shipped Received Handled Assembled into the final product Although all of these points contribute to the total cost of a com- ponent, the attachment of a price tag to each point is difficult to ascertain. One major automotive company has estimated the ad- ministrative burden to maintain one part at 50,000. This may seem unreasonable, but the estimate includes the time to prepare and detail a drawing, approval of the design, distribution of the detailed print, cataloging the part into a worldwide database, scan- ning the part’s drawing into a global computer site, tracking changes or updates to the drawing, and much more. Once a product is no longer being manufactured, the financial burden continues. One must consider the servicing of products in the field. Service parts must be packaged and warehoused, some- times for years, before they are shipped to customers. From a quality standpoint, every component adds risk. Fewer parts means fewer things can go wrong during manufacturing, and fewer things can go wrong once the product is in the field. Every quality issue or problem carries a financial burden whether it is fixed or not. 8.4 COMPONENT INTEGRATION IN DIE CASTING PROCESSES 127 When determining the cost of a product, one must remember to look beyond the material cost. The total financial burden of every component is made up of much more.

8.3 ANALYZING INTEGRATION POTENTIAL

Analysis methods have been developed to assist engineers and designers in the evaluation of products to determine if components may be integrated. 1 The application of these methods is often re- ferred to as design for assembly or integrated design. Presented in Figure 8.1 is a flow chart that summarizes the main design for assembly principles. 2 The flow chart addresses three basic areas that influence component integration: movement for function, material type for function, and service. A designer or product engineer can utilize this flow chart as a guide in analyzing an assembly to determine if component inte- gration is possible.

8.4 COMPONENT INTEGRATION USING HIGH

INTEGRITY DIE CASTING PROCESSES Choosing a manufacturing process often is the next hurdle to com- ponent integration. Many manufacturing processes are limited in their ability to produce complex geometries. Some processes re- quire the use of many individual parts that must be assembled into the final component. Other processes require costly secondary op- erations. In order to realize the benefits of integration, a flexible process is required. Few manufacturing methods offer the flexibility obtained by using high integrity die casting processes. All high integrity die casting processes produce components that are near net shape and offer engineers the ability to go to a finished component in some- 128 Figure 8.1 Component integration analysis flow chart.