Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA)

Elizabeth Line Design for Manufacture and Assembly tunnel lining project by Bryden Wood

Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) is a way of thinking at Bryden Wood. Central to our Design to Value philosophy, it is the fundamental idea around which we have developed our skills and capabilities and a key way in which we are increasingly unlocking value for clients.

What Are the Advantages of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly?

Design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) is a design and manufacturing process focused on minimizing production costs and maximizing product life cycle. Key factors of DfMA include improving quality, speed and safety, while simultaneously aiming to minimize or eliminate waste.

We Believe DfMA Represents the Future of Construction

DfMA emphasizes component optimization at the design stage, and streamlines manufacturing operations to achieve overall production cost reductions. Using DfMA manufacturing processes, alongside an optimized assembly process, helps to reduce the need for rework and waste, and also facilitates improved communication between designers and manufacturers, further helping to avoid errors and delays.

Development of a DfMA approach results in superior quality products that are more affordable and have a longer useful life, while also reducing both manufacturing costs and overall production costs.

Value Based Design Development

At the core of our approach for over 25 years, our DfMA expertise has put us at the forefront of a global initiative in industrialized construction, to bring the benefits of the manufacturing sector — safety, productivity, quality, speed and performance — into the construction industry.

Developing a Cross-Sector Solution

We have developed a wide range of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly solutions across sectors, for global clients and the UK government. Our expertise is unparalleled in this field, which is becoming more and more widely adopted in both the public and private sectors in the USA and across the globe.

What Is DfMA at Bryden Wood?

This approach to industrialized construction brings the principles and benefits of manufacturing to the construction industry. Design for Manufacturing and Assembly seeks to add value at every stage of the design and build process, by identifying opportunities for standardization of individual parts and/or processes.

A Complete Design to Value Process

DfMA is not something that can be retro-fitted to a traditional design process. It must be a core part of project thinking. In this way, it facilitates lean construction and a greater degree of sustainability. Starting with Design and ending with Assembly, DfMA is a complete, Design to Value process — from inception to delivery.

DfMA at Bryden Wood means innovation both across disciplines and sector boundaries. It energizes our entire operation. Many of the capabilities we have developed over the last 25 years — integrated design, systemization, creative technologies, algorithmic design, prototyping — have emerged as our approach has become more sophisticated.

What Is the Benefit of DfMA?

DfMA unlocks a wide range of benefits associated with the manufacture and assembly of products. Overall capital cost and time saving reductions of 30% are not uncommon. These arise from:

Reduced capital cost, delivered by efficiencies in the production and quantity of component parts required.

Reduced capital cost, delivered by efficiencies in the number and nature of assembly processes required.

Greater quality and consistency, as components and processes are refined, and mistakes and variation are reduced.

Reduced construction time and better health and safety, as processes are learned, repeated and refined.

Less wastage, as the quantity of components and materials can be calculated precisely.

Greater sustainability in construction and lean design, as standard parts can be produced to exacting environmental standards and re-used at the end of life of an asset, as part of a circular economy.

Greater quality and variety of design, as standardization of core elements frees up architects’ time to add value in aesthetics and the user experience.

Reduced risk, as standard components and processes are less subject to variation and uncertainty in supply and performance.
Better whole life performance and realization of the principles of Design to Value, as a result of better design, higher quality and the ability to incorporate ease of operation and maintenance into the components.

Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) is central to our work on Platform Construction design.

Platform Construction (P-DfMA)

Platform Design is an essential tool for modernizing the construction industry. P-DfMA manufacturing practices have been successfully used in a variety of sectors, including the commercial aerospace and automotive industries. In each case, P-DfMA has helped to reduce costs and lead time of product development, while maintaining a high level of quality by implementing highly refined manufacturing operations.

Features of Platform Design

Platform design has many unique benefits. Advantages of P-DfMA include tight tolerances, reduced assembly steps, and a level of flexibility and adaptability not found in other Industrialized Construction modalities such as modular design. As the design and construction industry moves toward further development of this innovative, Industrialized Construction approach, we'll benefit from a rise in quality, improved economy of both cost and materials, as well as increased flexibility across building typologies.