Automatic support of standardization processes in design models

In order to optimize costs of the supply chain, companies try to increase their degree of standardization. One possible approach is the reduction of the often high diversity of C-part variants. Therefore, they try to establish a small standard set of each C-part to reduce diversity to a minimum. The only restriction is to maintain required functionality of their products. Because of a smaller amount of variants, storage costs can be minimized. In addition, the resulting smaller number of variants leads to a higher frequency of usage and furthermore to a higher stock. This allows for economic purchase conditions. This paper describes an approach which supports the automatic establishment of new standards in the design process by using a CAD system.