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Design For Profitability: What DFP Means for PCB Designers
January 21, 2008 |Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
The electronics industry is full of buzz words, especially abbreviations that trip easily off the tongue.
Design for manufacturability (or DFM) has been a watchword among PCB designers and fabricators for many years, and for good reason. The ability of DFM to increase yields, functionality, and reliability is unquestioned. DFM has gained so much traction that it has become a key marketing buzz word throughout the industry. We've even seen marketing Web sites and company names dedicated to DFM.
But what is DFM? Some would argue that it's become just another form of inspection. Perhaps that's true, but without this inspection, the risk is just too high when you're dealing with razor-thin margins.
Still, when you look deeper, it's all about profit, isn't it? After all, the true value of DFM is its ability to make the design - and the final product - more profitable.
Design for profitability (or DFP) is a factor that must be taken into account. Ultimately DFP may be the most important consideration of all.
There is no doubt that profitability can be enhanced by PCB designers. DFP is a concept that all PCB designers should embrace, after all, they play an important role in the financial success of a product. As a product is developed from concept to completion, every element of design can and does affect the overall profitability. There are the obvious hard cost issues such as the number of components on a board, overall size and layer counts, material types, and the list goes on. However, the effect of design goes well beyond the hard cost alone.
DFP goes from the component level all the way to the product's look and functionality, which ultimately drives market demand, which in turn drives profitability. A great example of the DFP concept in action can be found with Apple's iPod.
Though Apple was not the first to market with an MP3 player, it was the combination of product design and functionality that catapulted the iPod into the iconic status it enjoys today. iPods have won a slew of awards, from engineering excellence to most innovative audio product. But the greatest reward, from the stockholder point of view, is its profitability. The iPod is a glowing example of DFP at its finest.
All designers should have an interest in Design For Profitability. The boards they design, if guided by DFP, would be the most efficient possible, meeting DFM rules and using the fewest materials, while offering the highest levels of functionality, performance, and reliability.
At Design007, we'll be covering all aspects of DFP - from front-end engineering through PCB design, fabrication and assembly, as well as the business side.
Remember, product development is all about profit, and profit starts with design. And DFP coverage starts at Design007.