An Approach for Size Reduction Assessment in Product Development: Design For Size Reduction (DFSz)

At the present, one of the most important market requirements is the designing and development of smaller goods carrying out better performances. In order to satisfy this important market request, ENEA decided to develop a methodology able to support the designer in reducing components and product size. The aim of this paper is the description of an approach in product design, named DFSz (design for size reduction), able to achieve cost reduction, improved quality and size reduction. Using this tool, the product designer can investigate and evaluate in the early design phases, from the size point of view, the parameters influencing the product architecture to determine critical parts and use the analysis as driver for specific design suggestions. Moreover, the task is the integration with Design For Assembly (DFA) analysis in order to consider functionality aspects, interactions and dimensional characteristics to perform a global optimisation in the product design activity.