Fewer test loops. Faster, data-driven decisions. Stronger outcomes.
Late Checks. Costly Loops. Uncertain Outcomes.
Tolerance and robustness reviews often happen at the very end of detailed design because they are time-consuming and complex. By then, the design space is limited, and changes ripple through multiple systems. The result?
• Time-consuming redesigns that delay time-to-market and erode business cases.
• Suboptimal solutions forced by shrinking design freedom.
• Frustrated engineers who see their preferred concepts fail late in the process.
The Hidden Cost of Late Checks
Most designs progress with only a handful of tolerance checks, often based on rules of thumb. Functional stacks involving multiple parts are rarely analysed early, leaving critical variation risks undiscovered.
At the final stage, reviews across all disciplines become a bottleneck and often just a checkmark that is ticked without understanding why these reviews are necessary.
Late discoveries force compromises, increase scrap rates, and inflate validation costs.
The underlying issue: robustness isn’t built in from the start. Without systematic coverage of all disciplines, designs remain unpredictable, and quality and performance are unknown until it’s too late.
Predictability from Day One
Robustness starts with the fundamentals: correct kinematics. By defining clear force paths and eliminating overconstraints early, RD8 ensures that systems behave predictably under real-world variation. Every interface is analysed for functional behaviour, so critical movements remain stable even when parts vary within manufacturing limits.
Equally important is understanding tolerance stacks from the first concept stage. Instead of relying on late-stage reviews, RD8 maps functional stacks early and across multiple components and sub-systems, so variation risks are exposed before they become costly. This proactive approach creates designs that are forgiving, manufacturable, and reliable, reducing redesign loops and accelerating time-to-market.
Robustness isn’t a one-time check but a continuous process. RD8 introduces design quality scores from the earliest sketches, tracking progress across all eight RD8 disciplines. These metrics highlight improvement trends and pinpoint weak areas before they become critical, enabling data-driven decisions at every milestone, not just at the end of every stage.
Case Study: Ventilation Unit
Using the RD8 Engineering Design Tool to evaluate and improve the design of a simple ventilation unit for the center console. Both the kinematics and tolerances were analysed to maximize the potential of the unit.
Ventilation Unit Tolerance Optimization
Ventilation systems often involve multiple moving parts and tight packaging, making tolerance stacks critical for function and perceived quality. In one of our analysed cases, late-stage reviews revealed overconstrained interfaces and unnecessarily tight tolerances that drove up tooling complexity and slowed ramp-up.
By applying robust design principles, reducing critical stacks and simplifying interfaces, this allowed for:
- Easing tolerance requirements by more than 200%,
- Fewer tooling iterations (cut from several loops to just 1 or 2)
- 30% faster ramp-up time
- Lower variation in adjustment forces
- Elimination of rattle risks
The result: predictable performance, reduced cost, and accelerated time-to-market, all achieved without compromising quality.
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