Part combination of design for assembly using Effort Flow Analysis (EFA)

Abstract

Design For assembly (DFA) is an important tool used to review the design for product evolution. It is aimed at reducing number of parts to be assembled in a product. This may lead to reduction of part cost achieved through reduction of assembly time and material used. The main focus in this project is to study and analyze the use of Effort Flow Analysis (EFA) method in reduction of parts of product. EFA is a method that combines more than one part by taking into consideration various degrees of relative motion of the parts in product. EFA uses an effort flow diagram that indicates flow of effort between each part with respect to its relative motion. The guidelines for EFA are based on four types of relative motion link that are N, C, R, and I-Links. The details of each link are covered in this thesis. To visualize the application of EFA for part reduction in product assembly, one particular product, which is Iron Water Nozzle, is presented. The old design was reviewed and redesign effort is done for the product evolution. As a result, new design of water nozzle is achievable with fewer parts and cost efficient. In future, it proposed to develop a software application by employing knowledge based approach into the software system.