From Complexity to Simplicity – the mantra of ‘Tao of DFM ‘

From Complexity to Simplicity – the mantra of ‘Tao of DFM ‘

I refer to the frank opinions of a Leader in Manufacturing in  India - Mr Baba Kalyani  of  Bharat Kalyani -which came up with the apt heading in Economic Times recently  –                                                                                                                                                ‘We are slaves in Manufacturing ,We have to be our own Masters ‘.

How and when we are going to be our own masters? How long ,we are going to be slaves ?After the so-called Liberalization from 1991 we are  decelerating  to become only slaves  and not the masters . We have moved far away from Gandhian Engineering and also forgotten our own Management Guru Prof. Prahalad’s advice  to  take up’ next practices’  suiting our own market and unique customer tastes and traditions . We are trying very hard by ‘simply ‘ importing technology and behaviors to this  land of great opportunities . We have the tradition of doing 100 % export of better things from India like Buddhism & Yoga for a song . We spent our hard earned US $  by IT and natural resources by importing Crude and importing ‘smuggled gold “. Our Nature has given ample Solar radiation to India and long coastal seas .We are not utilizing them ,but wasting our petroleum fuels for sundry things in the market .We have opened up education ; but to illiterate politicians who run huge Engineering Institutions .We have opened up manufacture of cars for MNCs to dump their petroleum driven cars in India to further pollute .We are building over bridges and  elevated high ways but to  again face similar traffic congestions a few kilometers away . We have allowed Metropolitan Cities to over explode , but we have forgotten  to upgrade the green rural  infrastructure .

Another important point to note from Mr Baba Kalyani is that the southern part of USA is becoming competitive to India in manufacturing and manufacturing has also picked up in  US . This is really challenging for our Indian Manufacturing Sector . We are now compelled to go for indigenous products  with innovations fine tuned to internal culture and tastes .

At least now we should think of the Gandhian Engineering :

Gandhian Engineering calls for great moves viz- :‘From Low Cost to Ultimate Low Cost, From Affordability to Extreme Affordability, From Incremental Innovations to Disruptive Innovations &Exclusive Innovations to Inclusive Innovations’ –as per Dr R A Mashelkar, the leading mentor for innovative practices in India.

We don’t innovate . We just copy & paste . We just load our kitchen and drawing rooms with durables  to degenerate our healthy behaviors . To innovate we have to bring in the Design Thinking in all fields of Engineering & Management .

‘Tao of Design For Manufacturability-TDFM ’  ‘is offering Simple Solutions to bring in  DFM for both New Product Development & Re-design of Engineering Products.

Basic  TEN Commandments  under TDFM

1-Best  Functional   Performance

2-Min Part Count

3-Min  Fasteners

4-Min Weight

5-Min Time & Cost for Assembly

6-Min Cost for Tools for Manufacture & Assembly

7- Min Number of Assembly Operations

8- Min Product Development Time .

9 –Min Total Cost

10 – Best Management  of Quality

( In no particular order of priority- Concurrent Engineering Team can fix the priorities as per directions of the  Management )

TDFM  -the Wisdom for Design is   well supported by its

Eight Pillars with ‘Simplicity’  as the  Common Roof .

Eight Pillars under TDFM : Manufacture / Assembly /Sustainability / Concurrent Engineering /  Innovation Engineering/Industrial Design  / Leancost & Reliability

‘School of TDFM’ ensures faster transformation of your Product Development Team  from  one  of Conventional /Sequential Culture to  a  Capable Team of  Concurrent Engineering   Culture equipped with a Reliable & Faster  means of TDFM applying Taoist Philosophy of Integrated Thinking .The need of the day is to bring in Innovation Engineering &  Concurrent Engineering  supported   ‘Tao of DFM ‘with  ‘Simplicity ‘as the common roof .

We really need REAL Simplicity in this World of Complexities to usher in Gandhian Engineering   in India –better late than never .

Under ‘Tao of DFM ‘, Design & Manufacturability  are expected to dance together not with arms to arms but  closely  with cheek to cheek.

We have to increase our capabilities in Software Services ( probably developments ) but also create unique status as a  Reliable Design Engineering &  Lean  Manufacturing Nation  .Let us focus more on this area and reach the  top slots in Manufacturing and take the country from this ‘slavery in manufacturing ‘ to one of ’mastery  in Innovation ,Design & Manufacturing ‘ by synergizing  the talents  of  the  youngest  minds   of this  generation in a dynamic way .We need more dynamic leaders and responsive  directions from the top.Swamy Vivekananda’s appeal to the  youth is still not fulfilled . So-   ‘Arise ! Awake !! and stop not till the goal is reached!!’

Er Ramalingam K S

DFM & Innovation Consultant     erramalingam.ks@gmail.com   engineersinnoventures990@gmail.com     www.dfmablog.com