Design for manufacturing and assembly/disassembly: joint design of products and production systems

Design for Manufacturing, Assembly, and Disassembly is important in today’s production systems because if this aspect is not considered, it could lead to inefficient operations and excessive material usage, both of which have a significant impact on manufacturing cost and time. Attention to this topic is important in achieving the target standards of Industry 4.0 which is inclusive of material utilisation, manufacturing operations, machine utilisation, features selection of the products, and development of suitable interfaces with information communication technologies (ICT) and other evolving technologies. Design for manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) have been around since the 1980’s for rectifying and overcoming the difficulties and waste related to the manufacturing as well as assembly at the design stage. Furthermore, this domain includes a decision support system and knowledge base with manufacturing and design guidelines following the adoption of ICT. With this in mind, ‘Design for manufacturing and assembly/disassembly: Joint design of products and production systems’, a special issue has been conceived and its contents are elaborated in detail. In this paper, a background of the topics pertaining to DFM, DFA and related topics seen in today’s manufacturing systems are discussed. The accepted papers of this issue are categorised in multiple sections and their significant features are outlined.