The Standardization of Parts
1. The standardization of parts and avoiding custom parts has many advantages as below：
It can decrease the waste of time and energy dedicated to custom parts, and shorten the development cycle of the products.
It has more advantages in costs, because standardized parts usually have comparatively low costs. As for plastic or sheet metal parts that needs to be made by molds, standardized parts can save the costs of making molds and have more obvious advantages in costs. As for costs, custom parts, like custom clothes, are always more expensive.
It can avoid the risks of quality issues. As it's known to all, standardized parts are widely utilized and are proven to be reliable in quality. On the contrary, the quality and function of custom parts need to be strictly tested, or else, there may be quality issues.
2. How to realize the standardization of the parts?
Firstly, the enterprise shall start a standard library for frequently used parts and Priority List of the parts, then start to implement the standardized strategy of different products within the enterprise.

It shall be encouraged to opt for parts in standard library during product development and the used parts shall be reused. parts in the same product can also be standardized.
Secondly, hardware parts shall opt for standardized parts from suppliers, such as screws, studs and conductive foams etc, because the custom parts will greatly increase time and costs.

"Never design parts that you are unable to find in the product catalogue"David Anderson said on the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Conference in 2001. It indicates that we should purchase ready-made(also off-the-shelf) standardized parts from suppliers, rather than make custom parts.
Currently there are some enterprises, which have already started their own 3D database of standard parts. Their designers can take some data from it while making a design, which will do good to the implementation of its Standardization Strategy.
Tags: Prototype   CNC machining    Injection Molding    Automobile Headlight    Support for Automotive Parts