Development of Design for Manufacturing Assembly (DFMA) Software in Bahasa Melayu

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iDECON 2010 – International Conference on Design and Concurrent Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)
20-21 September 2010
Development of Design for
Manufacturing Assembly (DFMA)
Software in Bahasa Melayu
Jum’Azulhisham A.S.1, Khairul Akmal S 2,
Humaizi A3
1Electrical, Electronics & Automation Section,
Universiti Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Spanish Institute, Lot
13 – 16 Kulim Hi-Tech Park, 09000 Kulim, Kedah,
Malaysia
Phone: +604-403 5219, Fax: +604-403 5201, Email:
azulhisham@msi.unikl.edu.my
2 Mechanical Section,
Universiti Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Spanish Institute, Lot
13 – 16 Kulim Hi-Tech Park, 09000 Kulim, Kedah,
Malaysia
Phone: +604-403 5219, Fax: +604-403 5201, Email:
khairulakmal@msi.unikl.edu.my
3 Pusat Pengajian Kejuruteraan Pembuatan,
Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Kampus Ulu Pauh, 02600 Arau,
Perlis, Malaysia
Phone: +604-988 5035, Fax: +604-988 5034, Email:
humaizi @unimap.edu.my
Abstract – The purpose of this paper is to present an new DFMA
software that is created in Bahasa Melayu. The software was
developed to assist in teaching the subject Design for
Manufacture in a number of universities in Malaysia. The
software is created using Visual Basic and MySQL. The software
is based on Boothroyd Dewhurst DFMA methodology.
Currently, teaching this subject uses manual procedure which is
time consuming but it helps to strengthen the foundation of
Boothroyd Dewhurst method. The software saves up to 97% of
the time needed for manual procedure. This software is
developed in Bahasa Melayu to differentiate it from the official
Boothroyd Dewhurst software and any other software related.
Even though the contents are in Malay, there are also Engish
translation as most terms are familiar in English. Since the
university had yet to obtain Boothroyd Dewhurst software, the
author refer its content with the promo version of the original
Boothroyd Dewhurst software that was supplied by vendors.
Keywords – DFMA, Visual Basic, MySQL, Boothroyd Dewhurst,
Concurrent Engineering.
I. INTRODUCTION
The term “DFMA” comes with the combination of DFA
(Design for Assembly) and DFM (Design of
Manufacturing). The basic concept of it is that the design
engineers apply the DFMA paradigm or software to analyze
the manufacturing and assembly problems at the early
design stage. By this means, all of considerations about the
factors that affect the final outputs occur as early as possible
in the design cycle. The extra time spent in the early design
stage is much less the time that will be spent in the
repeatedly redesign. The cost will be reduced when
designer uses DFMA software [1] [2].
Design for Manufacture and Assembly requires skill and
able to understand technical drawings, part characteristics,
parts insertion, part degree of freedom and part handling. It
requires special ability and time consume to understand
these method. Not all Malaysian manufacture able to use
DFMA in their product design development especially
small and medium industries. The cost of having such
method requires high investment especially to buy
appropriate imported software which costs more than
RM20,000 to RM25,000 per license per computer exclude
training. The other reason of this problem is the degree of
understand English language of some designer is low.
The software developed by Boothroyd Dewhurst is
compact. It seems easy to apply with user friendly’s
graphical icons but it produce complicated maneuver along
the screen and not in sequence. This may have difficulties
for the designers in applying the knowledge and takes time
to get use of it. Besides that, the designer require more time
in order to analyze parts of an assembly and sometimes
required days in completion the analysis.
Only a few higher education institution in Malaysia use
DFMA using Boothroyd Dewhurst method in teaching
learning process. It is difficult to do Design for Manufacture
and Assembly manually and takes some times to understand
it. Suggestion to overcome this problem is to use DFMA
software in Bahasa Melayu which is developed in this
project.
In this software users will not see any calculations and
command. It is mend to be selecting appropriate
instructions, answering matters and obtain the results in
terms of efficiencies of the design, efficiency or redesign
parts, suggested material selection and suggested
manufacturing process to be done.
The aim of Development of DFMA Software in Bahasa
Melayu is to develop DFMA Software in Bahasa Melayu
using Boothroyd Dewhurst approach. Time measure to
compare traditional analysis method and using DFMA
Software. The effectiveness of DFMA Software compare
with DFMA method manually are measured.

iDECON 2010 – International Conference on Design and Concurrent Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)
20-21 September 2010
Visual Basic is developed based on the BASIC
Programming language [3][5]. The use of Visual Basic can
be upgraded into web-based as part of further improvement
[4].
The authors claim that the software development takes
almost a year to build. The development consists of
identifying types of software and database can be used
which can be integrated each other. Modification of
software design in order to reduced time of inserting
appropriate data. Testing the software by the end user.
Identify any area for improvement in the software. Lastly,
survey questions were distributed to those who test the
software to facilitate their views on the software for further
studies.
II. SOFTWARE ARCHETECTURE
The software development consists of 2 parts. The
programming used powerful features such as graphical user
interface (GUI), object-oriented features, error handling
structured programming and etc. eased programmer in the
software development [1]. The software requires database
system in order to mismatch a series of materials and
processes. The database also useful in terms of applying
specific computations in order to obtain efficiency.
At the end of software development, the testing
procedure was made. The test conducted in order to
compare the application of DFMA in manual method
against DFMA software applied by a number of students.
This reflects their capability of understanding both
languages engineering English and technical Malay
language in applying DFMA analysis.
The analysis employs a number of students who have
good understanding in DFMA analysis Boothroyd
Dewhurst model. A number of sub-assembly parts of 6
products to be analyzed. The variance of pasts given to be
analyzed proven their ability to understand DFMA analysis.
Time was taken for conventional DFMA analysis and
analysis done using DFMA Software in Bahasa Melayu.
This response to their ability to understand engineering
English terms and translate it to technical Malay words.
In order to gain feedback from the user, questionnaires
were distributed. The questions consists of how the
software solve design problems, the ability of technical
language understanding, steps of data insert of the software,
further training requirement, time comparison of both
manual procedure and using software, requirement of
understanding tables, ergonomics & user friendly and a few
open ended questions which related to further improvement.
Figure. 1. A flow chart of DFMA Software in Bahasa
Melayu.
A. DFMA Software In Bahasa Melayu Development
The software development consist of developing of two
major forms namely, Design for Manufacture form and
Design for Assembly (DFA) form in Visual Basic. Visual
Basic is a programming language based on Microsoft
Windows. It is created in Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) which permits the programmer to
construct, run and debug its programs handily [1].
Phase 1
Phase 2
Start
Literature review on
DFMA and related
software
Software development
using Visual Basic &
Microsoft Access
Study the appropriate
software to be use
Modification of the
software design to ease
users (if required)
Software application
testing to the students
Discussion and
Conclusion
Improvement
End

iDECON 2010 – International Conference on Design and Concurrent Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)
20-21 September 2010
B. DFA form development
All essential element requires in DFA were appropriately
allocate in the software in appropriate sequence. This
general information of parts, rotation symmetrical, manual
handling and manual insertion.
The DFA form consists of two major sections. The first
section is the raw material selection. Choosing the right
material is the foundation of a good design. The second is
the machines and processes used to work the raw material.
The right process is essential for creating finished parts that
will meet your design requirements [6].
The use of Command Buttons, ComboBox and Option
Buttons in Visual Basic ease the programmer in entering
commands. While the user require to click related
information rather than spending more time to type.
Figure 2. DFA in Bahasa Melayu
C. DFM form development
The Forms Layout window were designed in such way to
ease students in following steps as same as taught in their
lecture. The Form Layout window consists of an image
representing the screen and the form’s relative location on
the computer screen. This facilitates students understanding
steps without having problem in maneuvering the screen,
calculations to me made and miss match table rows and
columns.
The use of Operator Precedence in Visual Basic by
applying arithmetic expressions in a sequence determined
by rules similar to those followed in algebra. This important
in computing some simple application by entering numbers
and automatically results appeared without ask to calculate.
This shortened user time taken to make any computation.
Based on the DFM tables, all material
Figure 3. DFM in Bahasa Melayu
D. Database development
While MySQL is used as a database to analyze
manufacturing processes and material used in DFM and
database for parts assembled. The correlation of these two
analysis were formulated in order to choose a number of
processes and materials highly recommended for
manufacture. The database also being used in DFA to
formulate Operational Time, Operational Costs and
efficiency before and after improvement made.
Table 1. DFM database using MySQL
In DFA the calculation used is simple where programmer
has to calculate value of part orientation α and β
α + β (1)
Operation Time of each part
Operation Time = number of item x (manual insert
time + manual handling time) (2)
Total Operation Time of all parts,
Operation Costs of each part,

iDECON 2010 – International Conference on Design and Concurrent Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)
20-21 September 2010
the Assembly Efficiency.
3 x (Σ estimation Minimum Time / Σ Operation
Time) (4)
All calculations were not displayed on the screen but
embedded in MySQL database. The only numbers appear
and displayed on the main software is the results.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The analysis consists of two tests conducted in terms
of finding differences between manual methods of
DFMA and by using software which have been
developed. This also includes the comprehending of
technical Malay Language compare with Technical
English which they used in the Engineering field. A
number of 6 parts with 3 sub-assemblies were identified
and tested by 20 students. This requires 16 parts to be
analyzed. The reason only 3 sub-assemblies were used in
the analysis is due to time constrain to analyze all parts.
The higher number of sub-assemblies to be analyze the
higher time required to finish the analysis.
Six parts related in this analysis are shown in table
below:
Table 2. Parts and sub-assembly used in the analysis
Sub-assemblies
Parts
Mouse
Top
cover
Bottom
Cover
Clicker
Marker Pen
Cap
Body
Ink
stick
Milk Container
Kettle
Pin
Cover
Cord
Grip
Eye Glasses
frame
Lens
Side
frame
Plug
Head
cover
Pin
Switch
Preliminary, the parts being tested to analyze Design
for Assembly (DFA) in two conditions. The time taken
to differentiate conventional method and software
application. The results were taken based on average
time taken to finish up the analysis of parts given.
Table 3. Results of DFA using conventional method
Total average time taken 20 students to analyze all
18 components is approximately 3.92 hours which nearly
4 hours.
Table 4. Results of DFA using DFMA Software in Bahasa Melayu
Embeded in My SQL
Table 5. Overall Results of DFA using DFMA software in
Bahasa Melayu
Time taken for DFMA Software in Bahasa Melayu is
incredibly good. It takes 6.23 minutes to analyze all 16
parts.
As a comparison of DFMA manual analysis with
DFMA Software in Bahasa Melayu authors have found
there are significant differences between these two
methods. Time variance shows 3.8 hours difference.
To show the efficiency of
 time analyze DFMA manually & Software  100
time taken to analyze DFMA using software (5)
Efficiency = 97.2%

iDECON 2010 – International Conference on Design and Concurrent Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)
20-21 September 2010
Figure 4. Time comparison of DFMA analysis manually vs
DFMA Software in Bahasa Melayu Analysis
Survey Questions
The purpose of survey is to obtain differences between
manual and computer based DFMA Analysis application.
This is to prove that the computer analysis eased analysis
and reduce time efficiently.
Each student was given a survey form in order to transmit
their feelings and experienced applying DFMA manually
and using this Software. The survey comprises a total of 19
selective questions. Almost all of the questions are focused
on the software. Only four questions were asked based on
their experience on DFMA analysis in manual method.
The level of difficulties of the answers are based on
numbers comprises of 1 to 5; where the lowest number is
the lowest, not most difficult, not necessarily used while
the highest number is the highest, easiest level, highly
necessary, least time taken.
The questions asked based on their experience, level of
understanding of both methods, level of difficulties of both
application, language proficiency, the format arrangement,
instructions to ease flow, time taken to finish each tasks, the
requirement of formulas, graphics and psychological
aspects.
IV. CONCLUSION
“DFMA in Bahasa Melayu” software was developed in
order to ease any users not necessarily engineers. All level
of people can apply this software in order to decide
appropriate processes and what materials to be made for a
part in a company. This can minimize overall time and
overall costs and increase profits. Even though this software
is simple and easy to use, there still room of improvement
to be made from time to time. Improvement can be made in
many perspectives including time, psychological issue,
length of instructions, hardware and software selection and
others.
The software is important in a way for a designer to
work against tight work schedule. It is rather easy to be
used and not require longer time to use it. In a way of
training purpose, the DFMA Software in Bahasa Melayu
does not required longer time to attend appropriate or
proper training due to the instructions provided in the
software is simple and systematic. The software efficiency
shows 97 percent better of labor efficiency especially part
designers and analysis compare with manual analysis.
For further improvement, the software can also be
integrates with other Design for X applications. This can
improve industries profitability in terms of getting better
results in their design.
The software is developed using software called Visual
Basic. The instructions can be varies as instructed by the
programmer. Even though this software is not developed by
Computer Engineering student but it is assumed that
engineering students in any higher learner institutions must
have the basic of computer programming language as their
pre-requisites beforehand.
In order to enhance knowledge of computer language,
this programming instruction can be simplified for future
development. For example, the programmer uses a number
of long instructions to develop a simple operation. The
programmer usually uses Case operation in the software.
Therefore, the use of Array command in Visual Basic can
be applying in future development which the instruction
may be shorter.
The software can also be programming using Visual
Basic.Net [8] and MySQL PHP in order to be used in
computer network in anywhere. In terms of software
security, this software can be secured by applying
passwords and username in order to minimize of
unauthorized user.
The time taken to use this software can be reduces.
Therefore the time of using this software can be optimized
effectively and efficiently. Instructions can be reduces and
the repetitions can be minimized. The user will not be asked
frequently which makes them bored. For instance, repetition
used when user is asked of part orientation in the main
frame and Manual Insertion Frame. More calculations can
be made internally without asking user to key in
instructions or to make unnecessary selections. The more
selections made, the more confusing user will undergo. This
kind of problem requires him or her to made further
thinking before decision can be made. As a result time loss
occurs.

iDECON 2010 – International Conference on Design and Concurrent Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)
20-21 September 2010
In order to create more interest to the users, more
interactive visual effects can be added such as animated
pictures and narration of processes, Learning Guide Button
for new user and analysis.
DFMA Software in Bahasa Melayu can be upgraded
and integrate with other Design for X (DFX) Software
application which is useful to the industries nowadays in
terms of Quality and Productivity excellence. This software
has a potential to be commercialized in domestic market
and internationally.
In order to follow parallel with the development of
technology, it is advice to integrate the software with vision
technology. Vision technology requires us to bring along
samples of part to be analyze, focused the part to the
camera. The camera is integrated to the software and
analysis will be taken over. The results are then appears
with the report in a few moment later.
REFERENCES
[1] Xie, X. (n.d.). Design for Manufacture and Assembly Xiaofan Xie
Dept.of Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah Retrieved from
www.cc.utah.edu/~u0324774/pdf/DFMA.pdf
[2] Boothroyd Dewhurst. DFMA. 2010.
http://www.dfma.com/software/dfa.htm (accessed Mei 2010).
[3] Deitel H.M Deitel, P.J Deitel, T.R. Nieto, “Visual Basic 6: How to
Program”. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1999
[4] G.Q Huang, K.L. Mak, Design for manufacture and assembly on the
Internet.Journal of Computing in Industry, Volume38, Issue 1,
(1999), 17-30
[5] Julian Case Bradley, A.C.M (2002), Programming in Visual Basic
6.0. McGraw Hill
[6] Boothroyd Dewhurst. DFMA. 2010.
http://www.dfma.com/software/dfa.htm (accessed Mei 2010).
[7] Johnyater. Hubpages Inc. http://hubpages.com/hub/DFMA (accessed
Mei 2010).
[8] Powel,G.(2006). Beginning Database Design. Wiley Publishing Inc.