How Prototypes Improve Your Manufacturing Process

Prototyping is a crucial step in new product development that allows manufacturers to validate designs, reduce risk, and optimize processes before full-scale production. This article explores the diverse benefits prototypes provide across the manufacturing process, from concept verification to design refinement, tooling prove-out to process troubleshooting.

Reducing Concept Risk

Prototypes are invaluable to test conceptual designs while specifications are still preliminary. Building early prototypes:

• Allows realistic evaluation of proposed product functionality
• Provides feedback to improve the design in terms of ergonomics, ease of use, assembly, aesthetics, etc.
• Verifies form, fit, and function meets customer needs
• Proves the feasibility of mechanisms, interconnections, and actions
• Highlights potential failure modes for mitigation

Investing in multiple prototypes to represent different concepts reduces risk by determining the optimal design direction before significant time and capital are committed.

Design Refinement

After concept selection, prototypes help refine the engineering design:

• Accurate measurements of prototype geometry and performance provide real-world data to improve CAD models.
• Prototypes reveal design flaws not apparent from CAD drawings, like part interference, intolerances, omitted components, etc.
• Components can be iteratively modified and re-tested in different integrated permutations to optimize the overall design.
• Ergonomic factors and human interfaces can be fine-tuned based on hands-on experience.
• Key design parameters are finalized to meet target specifications.
• Design for manufacturability and assembly are assessed.
• Production costs can be estimated more precisely.

Thorough prototype-based design refinement improves quality and reduces cost prior to large-scale manufacturing.

Proving Production Processes

Prototyping production-representative sample parts is critical to prove out manufacturing processes:

• Validates whether proposed processes can in fact produce parts meeting specifications.
• Test production tooling like molds dies, and jigs under real conditions.
• Uncovers technical issues requiring adjustment of process parameters or tooling prior to full production.
• Assesses cycle time capability relative to production volume requirements.
• Determines quality capability and establishes process control standards.
• Evaluate the reliability and repeatability of processes over multiple prototype cycles.
• Allows training of operators on production equipment using actual parts.
• Confirms supply chain capacity and capability for components, raw materials, etc.

High-fidelity production prototypes provide essential real-world validation of the entire manufacturing system.

Optimizing Production Tooling

Prototyping is used extensively in refining production tooling:

• Identifies modifications needed in mold cavity geometry, gate locations, etc. to meet part specifications.
• Tests progressive die sequences step-by-step to validate part geometries at each stage before final hardening.
• Verifies accuracy of CNC programs for machining molds/dies/tooling before final runs.
• Determines optimal die draw angles, draft angles, radii, etc. in stamping dies to avoid tearing or splitting during forming.
• Dial in clearances between die and punch to enable release while minimizing flash.
• Confirms conformance of castings from foundry tooling and quality of 3D printed molds.
• Allows metrology and geometry adjustments on assembly jigs and fixtures.

Optimization of tooling via prototypes prevents defects and delays during production ramp-up.

Troubleshooting Manufacturing Issues

Prototyping is extremely valuable for diagnosing and resolving process issues:

• Modified prototypes can isolate the root causes of defects observed in initial runs.
• New prototypes can be quickly produced to test fixes for issues.
• Dimensional inaccuracies are traced back to tooling problems versus process parameters.
• Prototypes help assess the impact of environmental factors like humidity or temperature.
• Tool wear effects are characterized by purposefully degraded prototypes.
• Process capabilities and control limits are recalibrated based on additional prototype runs.
• Operator training needs may be identified when defects only appear occasionally.
• Fixtures and tooling can be validated for repeatability over numerous cycles.

Without prototypes, manufacturers lose visibility into underlying issues and end up taking a trial-and-error approach.

Finalizing Manufacturing Workflows

Pilot builds of final production-representative prototypes are invaluable to map actual manufacturing workflows:

• Accurately sequences optimized steps from raw materials right through to finished goods based on observations.
• Incorporates additional processes like intermediate QA inspections as needed.
• Identifies material handling steps and equipment requirements between workstations.
• Determines optimal batch sizes for sequential and parallel steps to balance work-in-progress.
• Establishes process documentation formats and standards.
• Develops standard time estimates for each step to meet production targets.
• Uncovers bottlenecks requiring work rebalancing between departments.

This provides the blueprint for streamlined manufacturing operations.

Cost Reduction Opportunities

Prototyping reveals cost reduction potential:

• Simpler or standardized components can be substituted based on prototyping analysis to lower costs without compromising quality.
• Insights into component tolerances allow specifications to be relaxed where possible to reduce machining costs.
• Manufacturing process selection can be reevaluated if prototypes show suitability for lower-cost methods.
• Multiple suppliers can be prototyped to identify the lowest cost without quality loss.
• Production tooling and equipment can be right-sized based on process capability data from prototypes.
• Optimal control limits are applied to lower quality inspection costs without increasing defect risks.

These opportunities uncovered through prototyping avoid excessive process capability or over-engineering.

Accelerated Ramp-Up

Extensive prototype-based process validation enables faster production ramp:

• Equipment, tooling, and workflows have already been optimized and proven.
• Operators have developed skills in the actual production processes.
• Many defects and control issues are anticipated and prevented.
• Supply chain partners have been tested and can respond quickly.

This allows manufacturers to meet order volumes faster with quality and cost targets achievable right from initial production, without months of learning and issue resolution.

Reduced Field Failures

Prototypes improve product reliability:

• Design flaws and process risks have been identified under real-world operating conditions.
• Performance limits have been characterized by stress-testing prototypes.
• Components have been vetted through repetitive cycling and drop testing.
• All use cases and misuse scenarios can be replicated on multiple prototypes.
• Safety, regulatory, and certification requirements have been validated.

This provides a comprehensive base of reliability data to prevent failures once products are deployed in the field.

Conclusion

Prototypes provide invaluable validation of designs, processes, and tools throughout the manufacturing process. The benefits span the entire product lifecycle from concept to customer delivery and support. By leveraging prototyping at each stage of development, manufacturers can launch production faster, with tightly controlled costs and higher process capabilities. This results in high-quality products that exceed customer expectations. With today’s rapid prototyping technologies like 3D printing, manufacturers can easily create sophisticated prototypes for continuous design, process, and system improvement.