The demands for quality and delivery time have been growing in the majority of manufacturing sectors. However, these demands are strongly dependent on previous stages decisions, mostly those related to the product development process. Several of these decisions are influenced by the experience or personal preferences from the design team. Additionally, most products depend on the assembly processes, which can assume different configurations (e.g. permanent (riveting) or non-permanent (fastening) joining solutions). From the environment point of view, the reversible systems perform a fundamental role during the product development process. The choice for a fastening system occurs during the design stage. Thus, this paper aims at the development of a model that supports the decision making process when choosing reversible fastening systems, based on the economic aspects of the manufacturing/assembling process examined. The entry data and model structure are well adhered to the industrial reality, theoretical parameters, and data from the experiments. The model considers the costs factors originated from: i/ purchasing and storage; ii/ manufacturing; iii/ assembling; and iv/ maintenance; which are the main stages of a component life cycle. The set of equations that support the model is also presented. A preliminary model test illustrates its capabilities for capturing the cost differences amongst fastening systems for a specific assembly, from parameters defined at early stages of the design process.
Model for cost assessment; Economic analysis; Fastening systems; Comparative cost analysis
