Westinghouse Electric Selects DFMA Software from Boothroyd Dewhurst

By DE Editors

Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc. has announced that Westinghouse Electric Company has purchased licenses for Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) product costing software. Westinghouse is a pioneering nuclear energy company and a supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities worldwide.

“DFMA software will provide our newly formed Supplier Manufacturing and Value Engineering Group with a standardized approach for identifying and comparing the cost drivers behind each design option, leading to the development of ‘should cost’ manufacturing estimates and ensuring that our designs are compatible with the supply bases’ manufacturing capabilities,” says Brad Young, Westinghouse supply chain manufacturing engineer.

Young says that his group will apply DFMA on primary equipment for the nuclear island, focusing on low volume first-of-a-kind components including heat exchangers, tanks, vessels, and steam generators. The team is also planning on using the software on Nuclear Fuel assembly components, which are typically a higher-volume/repeat-manufacture product for Westinghouse.

“Our approach is to use DFMA as a standard for the creation of our internal process plans throughout the product-design lifecycle,” says Steven J. King, global director, Supplier Manufacturing and Value Engineering at Westinghouse. “Long-term, we want to couple the time estimate output from the DFMA software to feed a simulation tool. This will allow us to assess resource constraints, identify potential critical paths, and suggest alternative manufacturing schedules to ensure on-time delivery from our suppliers.”

DFMA software is a combination of two complementary analysis tools: Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Manufacture (DFM). Engineers use DFA software to benchmark the structural efficiency of their products and then reduce the assembly cost by consolidating individual parts into multifunctional designs. DFM software allows developers to examine competing material and process choices.

For more information, visit Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.