Design for X (DfX), Excellence or ‘X’ as a Variable?

“When you say DfX or Design for X, is the ‘X’ intended to be for "’excellence’ or the use of X as a variable as used in an algebraic equation?’” This question was asked of me when explaining what I do. “Well, it is dependent on the person you ask or where you look for the definition. If you use it as a variable it should cover the term ‘excellence' as well as any other term you want to use. Let’s go with ‘X’ as a variable.” was my response.

Regardless of the term you use for ‘X’ there are certain realities that are inescapable. If a system cannot  be

manufactured, it will not result in a product. If a system can not be repaired or serviced, it should have a long life and extremely high reliability or be so inexpensive that you can buy another one easily. On the other side, it needs to meet the customer’s demands. Here are two examples. If it is sold as a CleanTech solution, it should also be designed for recyclability, recovery, or reuse to suit the customer demands. If it is a critical system in the medical or aerospace fields, it should be designed for reliability and redundancy.

Generally, there is a balance that is dependent on the customer demands. As with any new product, you must know your customer, your product, and your process. You cannot  have everything. Design for manufacturing does not always translate well to design for supportability or recycle. All the options must be reviewed, ranked, and evaluated for the design. Good voice of the customer (VOC) and quality function deployment (QFD) work will help, but converting these to requirements needs more consideration. “New to the world” products do not have a good basis for customers to respond to the VOC questions, they only know what they know. Weigh the market demands with the variables and be ready to adapt to changes as the product is introduced to customers.