regulator standards

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Mil spec is the lowest possible cost to perform the bare minimum. It's not a yay! moment to be labeled mil-spec.

Ummm...No! Mil-Spec has nothing to do with cost.

You are confusing design and material standards with the cost of contract to manufacture. Those are very different things. One of the ideas behind Mil-Spec is to provide a quality standard for a product that can then be advertised for bid on the open market. It is meant so no matter what the lowest bid for the manufacturing/supply contract is, the pre-established quality standard must be achieved.

From a contracting standpoint the government puts the requirement out for bid, among the documentation provided by the government would be any standards required. Companies biding will independently look at what it will cost them to make or obtain the product in question and then decide what their profit margin among other financial factors will be for the requirement in question and then they will respond with their bid. Some companies are willing to make less profit than others, for example, so they bid less. To protect small business that can't afford to take as deep a cut into their profit margin as larger businesses, the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and other regulations/laws stipulates that government contracts/procurements should give preference to small businesses (among other categories).

How much the government pays for a product or service has very little to do with the standards developed for that product.

Standards in general, in most industries, are stated as the minimal acceptable criteria for the product or service in question. Again these threshold standards are established without regard for manufacturing cost.

-Z
 
Ummm...No! Mil-Spec has nothing to do with cost.

You are confusing design and material standards with the cost of contract to manufacture. Those are very different things. One of the ideas behind Mil-Spec is to provide a quality standard for a product that can then be advertised for bid on the open market. It is meant so no matter what the lowest bid for the manufacturing/supply contract is, the pre-established quality standard must be achieved.

From a contracting standpoint the government puts the requirement out for bid, among the documentation provided by the government would be any standards required. Companies biding will independently look at what it will cost them to make or obtain the product in question and then decide what their profit margin among other financial factors will be for the requirement in question and then they will respond with their bid. Some companies are willing to make less profit than others, for example, so they bid less. To protect small business that can't afford to take as deep a cut into their profit margin as larger businesses, the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and other regulations/laws stipulates that government contracts/procurements should give preference to small businesses (among other categories).

How much the government pays for a product or service has very little to do with the standards developed for that product.

Standards in general, in most industries, are stated as the minimal acceptable criteria for the product or service in question. Again these threshold standards are established without regard for manufacturing cost.

-Z
I'm incredibly well aware of the process. I stand by my statement :laugh:
 
I have reservations about 'regulating agencies' that set specs. Who, exactly, are they, and what qualifies them to make determinations would be my first question. Narrowminded officious bureaucrats frequently dominate these kinds of agencies, people with a negative reaction to anything they are unfamiliar with. My first new car was a 1968 BMW 2002. I failed inspection repeatedly until I disconnected a high beam flash lever on the steering column. "Police Equipment", they said. Now they are standard equipment. I'm not an engineer, but I know quality when I see it and use it. Reputation, I think, is far more reliable than some agency certification, which more likely than not sets minimum standards without qualitative gradations.
 

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