Shearfab Ltd is a specialist in structural steelwork, sheet metal fabrication and electrical enclosures, serving critical infrastructure sectors including Telecommunications, Water Infrastructure and General Manufacturing.

In conjunction with our clients, including major players such as leading telecommunication network and water infrastructure suppliers, Shearfab manufactures the steel plinths, complete with aluminium flooring, legs, stairs and platforms and the MCC carcase and busbars, to sit inside the GRP or steel housing. Our clients provide the automation and software integration and deliver and install the final turnkey solution.

How Shearfab can assist in DfMA

Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) is an approach to design that focuses on ease of manufacture and efficiency of assembly. It is a well-established approach in many sectors that is driven by the need to produce large numbers of consistently high-quality products very efficiently. In the construction sector, the ‘repeatability’ of end products may seem to be less than that of other sectors, at least at first glance. In this context, the application of DfMA might be seen as more challenging. The traditional approach to construction is centred around the delivery of large quantities of raw materials to the construction site, where large numbers of workers bring them together, often in challenging working conditions.

Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) is a way of designing and constructing a quality structure more quickly, efficiently and sustainably. Using a DfMA approach means that elements of a structure are created in the manufacturing environment rather than on site, and to more standard designs and specifications. This results in reducing the time-to-market and total production costs by prioritising both the ease of manufacture for the product’s parts and the simplified assembly of those parts in the final production.