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The designer will consider many aspects when designing and developing a product, including the selection of a suitable manufacturing process. Below are elements a designer should consider:

Prototype

The designer may wish to prototype the final product using the material of choice to test how it could be manufactured commercially and whether the mechanical and physical properties of the material are meeting performance requirements.

Scale of production

The designer will need to consider the scale of production of the final product to ensure the product is affordable to manufacture:

• one-off production - this is the most costly as specialist skills are required to make a unique product, eg a commission for a statue
• batch production - this is cost-effective when a set quantity is required, eg masks for a festival
• mass production - this is cost-effective on larger production runs because the set-up cost is shared over a large number of products, eg ballpoint pens

Based on this, consideration will then need to be made to the material selection, the manufacturing processes and the associated tolling and running costs.

Material

A designer will make material selections based on two main aspects:

• the mechanical and physical properties of a material
• the availability of a material to meet the demand of production

Cost

A designer may need to put a costing case study forward before a product is able to go to manufacture. Cost factors that need to be considered include:

• materials
• manufacture of components
• labour
• power
• transportation
• waste management