The key takeaway in this article from Supply Chain Brain is part standardization. Follow the link to read the whole article. I wholeheartedly agree that there is a lot of opportunity for improvement in many organizations. I don't necessarily agree that you need a 3D model to do that, however, the model might more easily support the export of the raw data needed to do the analysis. I remember that as an energetic youngster in supply chain 40 years ago that I asked our Configuration Management team to provide a data dump of the key dimensions for washers. From a review of ID, OD, thickness, and tolerances (for all three), it turned out we had lots of opportunity for standardization !! Depending on the designer, they used 2-digit decimals, 3-digit decimals, fractions, and drill sizes for ID and OD. Just this alone caused essentially the same item to have a different part number and different cost because each dimensioning method invoked different tolerances which then changed the p
