A Fortune 500 OEM came to MJM with a metal component that had been engineered for production on a progressive die — a hard-tooling approach that carries a large up-front tooling investment before a single production part is made. For the projected volumes, that die represented tens of thousands of dollars in tooling cost alone, plus the lead time to design, build, and prove out the tool.

The part itself was sound. The problem was the manufacturing method it had been designed around: a progressive die makes sense at very high volumes, but it locks in heavy cost and long lead time up front — a poor fit for this program’s actual quantities and timeline.

The requirement was clear: reduce the cost to produce the part without changing how it performed. The redesigned part had to meet the same form, fit, and function as the original — same critical dimensions, same interfaces, same in-service behavior. Nothing downstream could be affected. The only thing on the table was how the part was manufactured.

This is exactly the kind of problem MJM’s engineering team solves during design-for-manufacturability (DFM) review — looking at a part not just as a shape, but as something that has to be made economically with the right process.

MJM’s engineering team reviewed the part and recognized it didn’t need a progressive die at all. It could be produced as a precision sheet metal fabrication — laser cut and formed on standard equipment — while holding every critical dimension the original design required.

The team re-engineered the part’s manufacturing profile for a fabrication workflow: optimizing the flat pattern, bend sequence, and features so it could be produced accurately and repeatably without hard tooling. Because MJM performs laser cutting, forming, and finishing in-house under one AS9100 quality system, the redesigned part could move from concept to production parts quickly — no die to build, no long tooling lead time.

By moving from a progressive die to a fabricated design, the OEM cut its tooling cost by more than 95% — trading a five-figure hard-tooling investment for a small fraction of that cost. The part met the same form, fit, and function as the original design, and reached first production parts faster because there was no tool to build and prove out.

The biggest savings in manufacturing often come before the first part is ever made — in how the part is designed to be produced. A part engineered for the wrong process carries cost that never had to be there. MJM’s engineering team reviews every drawing for manufacturability and flags opportunities like this one: places where a design change reduces cost without touching how the part works.

If you have a part that feels expensive to tool or produce, send it to us before you commit to hard tooling. A quick DFM review may reveal a better, lower-cost path — as it did here. Learn the principles in our DFM guide, or send your drawings for a review.