From the course: Lean Inventory Management

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Standardize parts

Standardize parts

- Variation breeds inventory. I don't know who actually said that, but I certainly do agree with the thought. If you have a lot of different parts, you must keep and manage a relatively small batch of inventory for each different part you use. If you can standardize major parts of your product, you can eliminate many of those small batches of inventory making your management job a lot easier. Here's how that works. At Toyota and just about every car company, they standardize car parts as much as possible. For example, they might use the same steering wheel in all their economy cars and a different steering wheel in all their more expensive cars. They may have 12 different car models, but only two different steering wheels. In the same manner, all mid-sized cars made by General Motors have the same frame. Each model has a different body style, but the frame it is attached to is the same no matter what brand. Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, all mid-sized cars use the same frame which means…

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