How To Reduce Assembly Costs Without Redesigning Your Product

For engineering managers, reducing assembly costs can sound like the beginning of an expensive redesign. New drawings, testing, approvals, tooling and validation can quickly consume the savings you were trying to achieve. Fortunately, meaningful cost reductions do not always require changing the core product.

The better opportunity may be to examine how the product is assembled. Components, wire lengths, connectors, harness architecture and manufacturing processes can all introduce costs that provide little or no additional value to the customer. By working with an experienced manufacturing partner, engineering teams can identify these opportunities while protecting product performance and quality.

Start with value engineering.

Value engineering provides a structured way to identify unnecessary costs without compromising required functionality. This is the process of analyzing the components and processes used to create a product, with an emphasis on minimizing costs while maintaining standards required by the customer.

For an existing assembly, this might mean examining material choices, labour-intensive processes, component availability or specifications that exceed actual application requirements. The objective is not simply to purchase cheaper parts. It is to determine where costs can be removed while maintaining the performance engineering teams expect.

Evaluate connector substitutions.

Connectors can represent a significant portion of the cost of a cable assembly or wire harness. A specified connector may also create hidden costs because of long lead times, minimum order quantities, specialized tooling or supply chain constraints.

Engineering managers can work with their manufacturing partners to identify compatible connector substitutions that meet the necessary electrical, mechanical and environmental requirements. An alternative connector with better availability or simpler termination requirements could reduce both material and assembly costs. Any substitution should, of course, go through the appropriate engineering review and validation process before implementation.

Standardize wire lengths.

A product family may accumulate numerous wire lengths and configurations as designs evolve. Over time, small variations can increase inventory requirements, purchasing complexity, setup time, documentation and the possibility of assembly errors. Standardizing wire lengths where tolerances and installation requirements allow can simplify production without fundamentally changing the product.

For engineering managers overseeing multiple product configurations, even modest standardization can make assemblies easier to source, manufacture, stock and maintain.

Look for harness consolidation opportunities.

Multiple individual cables or sub-harnesses can sometimes be consolidated into a more efficient harness assembly. Consolidation may reduce individual part numbers, connectors, routing steps, handling and final assembly labour.

A consolidated harness can also arrive at the production line as a tested, ready-to-install assembly. That shifts repetitive cutting, stripping, crimping, termination and testing away from final product assembly and into a controlled manufacturing process. The result can be fewer production steps and more predictable assembly times.

Apply design for manufacturability.

Design for manufacturability (DFM) asks a practical question: How easily and consistently can we build this product? DFM does not necessarily mean starting over. A manufacturing partner can review an existing assembly and identify difficult terminations, unnecessary operations, awkward routing, excessive component variation or processes that depend heavily on manual labour.

Contact Flux Connectivity!

We work with engineering teams and OEMs across Canada to manufacture cable assemblies, wire harnesses and connectivity solutions with cost, quality, reliability and manufacturability in mind. By examining both the components and the manufacturing process, we can help identify opportunities to remove costs that do not benefit the finished product.

For more information about reducing your assembly costs, please don't hesitate to give us a call at 1-800-557-FLUX or email us at connect@fluxconnectivity.com. You may also fill out the form on our Contact Us page!