LEGO enthusiasts can teach manufacturers about parts management
You probably know LEGO as the perfect gift for the builder in your life. Or maybe you know LEGO for the unparalleled pain of stepping on one of those tiny bricks. Either way, everyone knows LEGO. But did you know that LEGO is the king of parts management? The design team regularly saves time and money by finding creative ways to reuse existing parts.
For example, if LEGO makes a wheel for the Mopar Dodge//SRT Top Fuel dragster, why redesign and rebuild a similar wheel for the Picnic in the Park bike and wagon? Using the same part for multiple designs is obviously a great way to save time and energy when designing new products.
But what about more obscure parts? How about the wings of the pteranodon from the Jurassic World set, for example? It seems difficult, if not impossible, to reuse such parts. On TikTok and other social platforms, LEGO fans have recently reported on the ingenious ways in which LEGO reuses these strange parts.
Wings and surfboards aren't the only pieces LEGO is reinterpreting. In 2001, LEGO released a series of Harry Potter sets that included little green frogs.
By 2022, these frogs had been produced in 14 colors and used in over 180 different sets. As one Reddit user noted, a modern, more vibrant version of this frog was found in the LEGO Bonsai Tree set disguised as cherry blossoms.
Social media posts like this have led to other parts being reused too. One Star Wars fan took to Twitter after realizing that his rocket boosters were actually carrots!
Websites like Rebrickable and BrickLink have made finding these reused 'misfits' an easy task. On these websites, each LEGO set is broken down by part. You can search for a set to find all the pieces used in that set, or you can search for a specific piece to find every set in which that piece is used. For example, if you search for the rocket booster carrot, you will find that it has been used in over 200 different sets. From farms to mines to spaceships, the 33172 carrot part is very versatile!
With the help of websites like this one, avid collectors can evaluate their own parts inventory and save money by buying only the pieces they don't already own.
LEGO's efficient use of parts is impressive to say the least! Parts management is a sustainable practice that creates room for creativity and saves any industrial company time and money. The next time a manufacturer picks up a LEGO, I hope they are inspired.
