In this video Ian Peterman, CEO of Peterman Design Firm, explains that designers do not need to create every component of a product; off‑the‑shelf (OTS) parts can and should be used whenever possible. He describes a spectrum ranging from pure OTS parts (no customization, standard SKU) through minor cosmetic tweaks (color coating, embossing, laser‑engraving), partial customizations (custom head geometry, specialized tooling for a portion of a part), to fully custom components that require unique drawings, tooling, and certification. He provides concrete examples such as custom‑coated screws, gold‑plated screws, blue‑powder‑coated screws, embossed pens, and honeycomb‑shaped screw heads. Peterman highlights that regulated industries (military/ITAR, medical/FDA, transportation, CE) often limit OTS availability because parts must meet strict material, sourcing, and compliance requirements, which can drive the need for custom or specially sourced OTS parts. He stresses the importance of Design‑for‑Manufacturing (DFM) to maximize OTS usage, especially during prototyping, where using OTS components reduces cost, speeds iteration, and validates supply‑chain choices before committing to custom tooling. The overall recommendation is to aim for the OTS side of the spectrum whenever feasible, balancing cost, lead‑time, and regulatory constraints.
Chapters
Hello, my name is Ian Peterman. I'm CEO and founder of Peterman Design Firm, and today I want to answer 2 questions. The first being, you know, when can I use off-the-shelf parts? And I've gotten that, that question from a lot of people looking at, you know, Basically, how do I, how do I use off-the-shelf parts so I don't have to recreate the wheel on everything? And the other question is, do I have to, do I have to design every single part? And the answer to that, and the reason I— they're basically the same question, is no, no, you don't have to design every single part that goes into your product. You can use off-the-shelf parts. The only caveat to that is that sometimes in your product you may need to make custom parts. So I've even worked on products where custom screws were needed, and they're one-time screws, they're made for one part, and there's nothing like it. They use a thread that nobody else will ever use. And there's reasons to do that, you know, security reasons or needing different space requirements, things like that. But, you know, there's a lot of times where you use off-the-shelf parts. That's why there's screw manufacturers. They make screws, they get used by everybody. They make— you can get special coatings done, you can get, you know, minor customization done very easily. So for example, you want You know, black oxide. Well, that's an option. That's a really common option. But if you want gold, solid gold screws, there's probably a screw— there's a screw manufacturer— not probably, there's definitely a screw manufacturer who will make a nearly solid gold, or it'll be solid gold. It may not be too high a percentage so their machine doesn't just eat the gold. But you can get a gold screw. Definitely do it if you really want one. So there's, there's kind of this spectrum between true off-shelf, meaning zero customization. It's something I buy from a store. I could go to a hardware store and I could buy that screw. There's no customization at all. I'm not even— no special color, no special anything. Off-shelf and has a SKU, more than likely it's just ordered. It's ordered, you can order it, anybody else orders it, everybody orders it. Then you have, you know, full custom where nobody in the world has ever made this part before, probably, or to your knowledge. It's made specifically for you, it's made specifically for your product. And, you know, this is obviously the most expensive time. This is where the reason why companies like mine exist, because You need parts that have never been made before by anybody else, and you need them designed. And then there's this middle ground. There's— is this really a rainbow? And it all blends together. It's a nice black to white gradient here. And right in the middle, you have this band of, well, it's an off-shelf part, but I got it in blue. Nobody else is getting it in blue. You can't order it in blue online. You— they don't— the company making your screw doesn't make it in blue, but you need it in blue. So you take an off-the-shelf part and you do a minor customization. And that's, you know, not as much tooling. Maybe you're just powder coating it blue, you know, whatever it is, you're doing just a minor amount of work. And so that's still, you know, over here. Then you have things that are, you know, Something that is customized, but it's an easy-to-do customization. So an example of that is doing things like embossing leathers and screen printing and laser engraving your logo onto a product. You know, when you buy— you get pens and it has your company information all over it, that's a really easy— nobody's getting you pens. Well, Probably no one is getting your pen with your information on it other than you, but it's minor. No one's going to charge you a giant tooling cost. It's still the same pen. We're just making kind of cosmetic changes, so to speak. And so that's still in this very easy— it could be very custom. You know, you could order the pen, get it gold-plated, plus have your name in, you know, black on it. That's on top of the gold because you want gold under it. You know, whatever it is you're getting, getting it to, or, you know, it's— I want diamond-encrusted something. Well, most people aren't going to get the diamond-encrusted version. You're just adding it to it. And so that, that level of customization is very easy. It's very cost-effective. Uh, you know, getting blue screws is far cheaper than getting a custom-shaped head on a screw. And that's— and then that's where you start getting into, well, I want your screw, but I want it to be a honeycomb. I want a honeycomb-shaped head, little honeycomb, and the screw. So the screw, the threaded part, is going to be threaded on the same machine as everything else, and your head is going to be customized to you. And so that's a partial— you start getting into partial customization where you're not— you don't need to do tooling for all the entire process of making the part, but you're customizing bits and pieces that now do require special customized development. And, and sometimes tooling and things like that. And so that starts getting into— now we're— now we've shifted over into you're gonna have to get drawings made, you're gonna have different technical specs, you You're— you now— your QC process requires— in order to have QC, you have to have drawings. You have to have— nobody has them, so you have to supply them or get the manufacturer to create them. And so that really just brings you in this place where you start tipping over into production, into full custom. But it's not full custom because, you know, so same screws using and, you know, 8-32 UNC screw thread. Great, fantastic. That's standard all across the board. You can get all kinds of screws in that shape, but your head is different. And so after that, kind of that point where it's a partial, then it's just full. And that, that spectrum right there, ideally you want to be— over here is the cheapest, over here is the most expensive. You want to be over here. You want to be where It's going to— off-shelf is great. The places where that is a concern, so if you do projects that are under ITAR or you do products that are medical, anything that's regulated, so military, transportation, medical, those kinds of areas, the off-shelf— Can be okay, depending on what it is and if it meets specifications of the industry that you're working in. And having worked on military and medical devices and transportation, it's— unless you're working with an OEM who already is in that space, it's unlikely that you're going to find something off-shelf. And there are not as many off-shelf parts there because there's so many different requirements. And regulations change. So off-shelf today may not be compliant tomorrow. It just might not be. And so custom is the typical way to go. And that's part of why those products are more expensive, because they have to meet different legal requirements that fluctuate, and you have to keep up with and then be able to— be able to, you know, if you have an FDA-approved product and device, You have to be following even— there's even sourcing federal requirements, and I'm talking US-based, but this goes as well for CE and other certifications. If you, you know, there's things like you can't source conflict material. So that means there's certain countries, if your raw material comes from there, you can't have it made. So if your off-the-shelf part, which is 5 cents, comes from that, that location, and you can't do that. You might now be paying $2 apiece because you have to source your own raw material from another place. And since they aren't doing that normally, you're not going to pay a special price for you to get your special material. And so that's, that drives it over, over here. So you might even end up having an odd, quote unquote, Off-shelf, no special tooling, but your material may be required to be super custom, which is still cheaper. So it's, it's still all cheaper than fully custom. This is like custom tooling. You are going to get custom injection molding tooling that you get made, you pay to get made, you get— it gets used on your product. It only can make your product. It's Nobody else is going to use your product, or they shouldn't be. So there's always this balance. And off-shelf, the goal in any design is you want as much off-shelf as possible to balance with requirements. And that's part of designs for manufacturing, which I'll dive into in another video. But part of that process is sourcing off-shelf as much as possible. And it's worth the money to spend in the DFM process, design for manufacturing, to look for those off-shelf parts. And depending on how you prototyped, you start with what you prototype with, and you want to use as much off-shelf things in your prototype as possible because you're going to make one and you're going to break it, and you're going to make another one, you're going to test it, you're going to make another one, and you're And you're going to keep going. And so you want to really use off-shelf, and that can also help inform production. And that, oh, well, we use this off-shelf part, it works fantastically. We've tested it, it's great. And so it really just depends on your project regulations around your industry. And, you know, the end goal is you do want to be on off-shelf side of things. Whenever you can, just because it costs, it costs less and it's easier. You can have supply chain set up. It just makes it easier for everyone involved to do it that way. So hope that answers the questions, you know, when can you use off-shelf parts and do you have to? Short answer again, no, you don't have to design every single part that goes into your product, and you should use off-shelf as much as you can.
