The most expensive problems in a sheet metal program rarely originate on the shop floor. They originate in the CAD file — design decisions made early in development that create unnecessary complexity, drive up material cost, or require rework before first article can be approved.

Design for manufacturability (DFM) is the discipline of making those decisions with production in mind. For sheet metal specifically, it means understanding how forming, cutting, and fastening processes translate a flat pattern into a finished part — and designing to work with those processes rather than against them.