Role of Manufacturing in Design-

A design engineer may come up with a product design which is functionally of high quality but if it has to become a reality, it must be produced at a competitive price and in a reasonable time to achieve customer satisfaction. Thus, in order to satisfy the basic requirements of quality and service life at an affordable price, the designer must be fully acquainted with the manufacturing methods or must collaborate closely with those who are specialist in the area.
The major step towards integration of design and manufacturing has been brought about by computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing. Earlier the use of computers was primarily confined to drafting, but with enhancement of computer capabilities, its use was extended to analysis and design activities and came to be known as CAD. CAM started before CAD and was developed essentially for process programming for computer controlled machine tools. Marging of these two areas led to the development of what has come to be known as computer-integrated-manufacturing. CIM is therefore, total integration of all aspects of design, planning, production, marketing and management.