BENEFICÍOS DA ESTANDARDIZAÇÃO
"Standardization benefits an organization in a variety of ways: it enables mass production, enables customization, improves supplier coordination, improves quality, enables simplification, enables delayed differentiation and, as a result of many of the other benefits, lowers inventories. 1. Enables mass production. As Eli Whitney discovered, mass production becomes possible through the creation of interchangeable parts. Standardized parts and components enable management to stabilize production processes and focus on continuous improvement, thereby reducing costs. 2. Enables customization. Standardized parts and modules enable manufacturers to make a wide variety of finished products from a relatively small number of parts. With standardization, the wide variety of finished products may be assembled when ordered, thereby reducing inventory carrying costs and increasing flexibility to meet specific consumer demands. Dell exemplifies this in its ability to customize computers for customers on the same day the order is placed. Dell accomplishes customization largely through standard components and modules. 3. Improves supplier coordination. Standardization parts and components provide a very clear specification for the supplier. The dimensions, characteristics and performance of a standard part or component improve the ability to communicate between the buying and selling companies. 4. Improves quality. Standard parts and components are repetitively manufactured to the same design, enabling investment by the producing company in better machinery, training, and materials. The result is a significantly lower defect rate. 5. Enables simplification. Once standard parts are identified, simplification can be used to identify redundant standard parts that can be eliminated. 6. Enables delayed differentiation. When customization of the product is accomplished as close to customer demand as possible, the differentiation of the product or service is delayed. For example, suppose a customer purchases a computer online with a customized configuration of standard parts and modules. The manufacturer has two possible ways to fill the order. The manufacturer can preassemble hundreds or even thousands of computer configurations that customers may want so they are ready to ship when the demand occurs. Or, using delayed differentiation the manufacturer stocks standard components and modules that can quickly be assembled into customized configurations. Delayed differentiations results in carrying much lower inventory levels. 7. Lower inventories. Lower inventories result from the number of distinct parts carried being reduced. There are several other reasons standardization lowers inventories. Better quality from greater use of standard parts and components reduces safety stock. Delayed differentiation reduces the need to carry as many finished goods in stock, thereby reducing overall inventory levels. Standard parts and modules usually have more certain and shorter supplier order lead times. Reduced uncertainty in production lead time reduces the need for additional inventories required for unreliable lead times. Shorter lead times directly translate into smaller order quantities. The use of standards permits a firm to purchase fewer items, in larger quantities, and at lower prices. Thus, fewer items are processed and stocked. This reduces supply management, receiving, inspection, and payment costs. Stocking fewer items makes controlling inventories easier and less costly. The use of standardized approved items drastically reduces the number of defects in incoming materials. Consequently, the purchase of standardized materials reduces total costs in four ways: lower prices, lower processing costs, lower inventory carrying costs, and fewer quality problems."
Fonte: Burt, David N.; Dobler; Donald W.; Starling, Stephen L. (2003) World Class Supply Management: The Key to Supply Chain Management, McGraw-Hill Irwin, p. 254-255.
