How to Identify Direct Digital Manufacturing Opportunities at Your Company. - Stratasys - #2

the CAD data, exporting a new file and launching the DDM machine. There is no additional cost for rework or retooling and no interruption in production schedules. Therefore, if a product is likely to change, DDM is a good alternative to traditional methods.

The freedom of redesign is the reason that many manufacturers are now using DDM as a bridge to production. It gives them the flexibility to change the design after a product's launch.

With customized products, there is a 100% guarantee of redesign. If a product is customized for each client, DDM should be the first process that is considered. It provides labor-less customization that is fast and affordable. Although most manufacturers do not offer customized products, and therefore would not benefit from this aspect of DDM, it may be worthwhile to consider if any items in the current product line could benefit from customization. If a static, unchanging product where to capitalize on DDM, would it offer more value to your customers?

Currently, the medical and dental fields are the most likely to implement DDM for large volumes of custom products because many items have to be custom fit to each patient. Accordingly, they have proven to be early adopters of DDM.

If sales forecasts are measured in millions of parts a year, and the design doesn't change, it is unlikely that DDM will be an alternative to high-volume manufacturing methods. The ideal DDM applications have low annual production volumes because of the rate of throughput and unit cost.

Where injection molding can pop out six parts a minute at a few pennies each, DDM will typically take several hours and tens to even hundreds of dollars for each part. So, high production volumes are not ideal applications for DDM. It is, however, critical to note that production volume is not measured solely in terms of pieces per year.

To correctly identify a DDM opportunity, evaluate production volume in terms of cubic inches per year. Calculate the annual volume by multiplying the total of number of parts by the parts physical volume. Using this measure of annual volume there are two cases where DDM works well. The first case is a large number of small parts. An example of a good DDM application is the production of 100,000. Because of the small size, the production rate could be 500 per run and the run time could be a few hours. The second case is a small number of medium to large parts. If you want to make a part the size of a blender, a reasonable production plan would call for part quantities in the thousands (figure 3).

These five characteristics are key indicators that DDM should be considered. However, it is vital to note that they are just easily evaluated indicators that serve to build general guidelines. For DDM success, all five indicators need not be present. In most cases, just one or two characteristics can make DDM a viable and valuable process. There are also successes where the products demonstrated none of these characteristics, yet the unique, innovative capabilities of DDM proved too valuable to ignore.

Since engineers and manufacturers are not up to speed with DDM concepts, the simple recommendation is to review products as they pass through the design and manufacturing process. Review them to see if the demonstrate any of the traits common to successful DDM implementations. In doing so, new and interesting DDM opportunities and applications will become visible.

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