Assembly Quality Method: Integrating Design for Assembly Cost-Effectiveness (DAC) to Improve Defect Prediction

The complexities in assembly processes have a strong correlation with the occurrences of defects. This paper develops a design-based complexity factor derived from the “Design for Assembly” method for evaluating assembly to augment factors not captured by the process-based complexity factor proposed by the authors. The authors collected extensive field data including consumer audio equipment assembled at various manufacturing sites around the world, and used defect data for validating the metrics. The quantitative correlation between the design-based complexity factor and defect rates will provide mechanical designers with guidelines for improving the original design.Copyright © 2003 by ASME