The Best Engineered Part Is No Part
Putting together CR Corp.’s new 2760 electronic cash register is a snap. In fact, William . Prague can do it in less than two minutes-blindfolded. To get that kind of easy assembly Prague a senior manufacturing engineer at NCR, insisted that the point-of-sale terminal be designed so that its parts fit together with no screws or bolts. The entire terminal consists of just 15;vendor-produced components. That’s 85 percent fewer parts from 65 percent fewer suppliers than in the company’s previous low-end model the 2160. And the terminal takes only 25 percent as much time to assemble.assemble. Instillation
and maintenance are also a breeze says Prague. The simplicity flows through to all of the downstream activities including field service The new NCR product is one of the best examples to date of the payoffs possible from a new engineering approach called “design for maneuverability mercifully shortened to DFM. Other DFM enthusiasts include Ford General Motors IBM Motorola Perkins-Elmer and Whirlpool, Since 1981 General Electric Co. has used DFM in more than 100 development program from major appliances to gearboxes for jet engines. figures that the concept has netted $200 million in benefits either from cost savings or from increased market shares.
