DFX stands for Design for Excellence and comprises the methods, guidelines, and standards for creating better quality products during the design phase in order to optimize performance, reliability, and efficiency.
While the ‘X’ stands for excellence, it also refers to different elements involved in creating quality products that can be addressed within the design process, including:
DFM/A (Design for Manufacturability/ Design for Assembly) to assess manufacturing readiness and support process development and validation up to and including pilot production.
DFSC (Design for Supply Chain) focuses on Supply Chain optimization in part sourcing for cost, traceability, and risk management.
DFT (Design for Test) assesses what kinds of testing your product needs and whether those tests can be performed based on the current design, and can later include test strategy design, test plan development, and validation for the product.
DFS (Design for Service) ensures products are serviceable by design, and have validated methods in place for repair, refurbishment, and/or upgrades if required.