Smart savings start with smart design. Cost reduction in manufacturing is not about finding the cheapest supplier—it's about eliminating unnecessary cost at the design stage. This guide synthesizes principles from across our knowledge base, showing you how strategic design choices, material selection, and process understanding directly translate to the bottom line.
Core Philosophy: Cost is Designed In (or Out)
The most significant cost drivers—complexity, tolerances, material waste, and assembly time—are determined long before a tool touches metal. Learn to control them.
Understand what you're paying for and where the leverage points are.
Apply high-impact rules that cut cost across all manufacturing processes.
Dive into the dominant cost factors for each technology and how to design around them.
Choose the optimal, not just the optimalistic, material for function and cost.
Proactively design to prevent defects and delays that inflate project budgets.
Leverage production economics and partner strategically.
Your Cost Reduction Action Plan:
Cost optimization is a continuous process. Ground your approach in the fundamentals of Basic Design, and when pushing performance limits, consider the advanced techniques in Complex Design to achieve more with less.