DfMA stands for Design for Manufacture and Assembly. DFMA is the combination of two methodologies; design for manufacturability, which means the design to facilitate the manufacture of the parts that will form a product, and design for assembly, which means the design of the product to facilitate assembly. When a system is conceived for a special use, with limited precision performance, and unlimited durability (50 years for a building is many years compared to other products), we are strongly constrained by the particular technological challenges involved, by the time available, and by a budget (CAIV: cost as an independent variable). The perverse loop is that restricting ourselves even further, by thinking about manufacturability and assemblability, complicates the problem devilishly, and very often we give up even though we know that it is precisely this tactic that can help us to relax our constraints.

Tightened ties are fatal to the generation of valuable ideas that overcome the technological challenges and achieve an innovative result with a 6Sigma-type operational reliability that prolongs its life. But, on the other hand, excessively loose bindings make the well-known “cost-influence-incurrence” curve even more pronounced, with its fatal consequences in lead times and off-budget costs. Design to be manufactured/Fabricated buildings instead of building. Here we launch the challenge.