Decisions in Product Platform Development Projects

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
pp. 1550001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter E. Harland ◽  
Haluk Yörür
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Product Platforms ◽  
Platform Development ◽  
Product Platform Development

Introducing "product platforms" in companies to achieve competitive advantages, like decreased costs and increased product variety, is a widely recognized strategy in research and industry. Nevertheless, there are certain challenges involved in developing product platforms. In order to address this complexity, we focus on the decision-making perspective of platform development in this paper. Based on a systematic literature review, we identify the decisions in product platform development projects (PPDP) and categorize them. We identified 21 decisions that are made within PPDP, which represent a greater scope of decisions than presented in the literature sources reviewed. The plausibility of these platform project decisions is illustrated with a case study of a perennial platform development project within the automotive supply industry. While most of the literature sources only mention very few decisions, the case study shows the complexity and high number of decisions required for an actual PPDP. In addition, it also recognizes all of the prior reviews of the decisions identified. Unlike in the literature, the decisions in the case study were made over a certain period of time. Therefore, we propose that the dynamics of the decision-making process in PPDP have to be taken into account. The set of PPDP decisions identified will help project managers to structure future PPDPs better and support researchers in building related product platform models.

A Product Variety Tradeoff Evaluation Method for a Family of Cordless Drill Transmissions

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn G. Conner ◽  
Joseph P. De Kroon ◽  
Farrokh Mistree
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Product Performance ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Product Platforms ◽  
Individual Product ◽  
Alternative Product ◽  
Per Se

Abstract In this paper we present the Product Variety Tradeoff Evaluation Method for assessment of alternative product platforms in product family design. The Product Variety Tradeoff Evaluation Method is an attention-directing tool for evaluating tradeoffs between commonality and individual product performance for product platform alternatives with differing levels of commonality. We apply the Product Variety Tradeoff Evaluation Method to a case study in transmission redesign for a family of cordless drills. The emphasis in this paper is placed on the method rather than on the results, per se.

5.6.2 Decision Making in Modular Product Platform Development

2002 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1151-1158
Author(s):  
Christian M. Ofer ◽  
Kevin N. Otto ◽  
Clifford Whitcomb ◽  
Eduard Igenbergs ◽  
Armin P. Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Modular Product ◽  
Platform Development ◽  
Product Platform Development

INTER-FIRM PRODUCT PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

2005 ◽  
Vol 09 (02) ◽  
pp. 155-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
MAGNUS LUNDBÄCK ◽  
CHRISTER KARLSSON
Keyword(s):  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Product Platforms ◽  
Platform Architecture ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Platform Development ◽  
Product Platform Development

The product platform development process becomes critical and of general interest when different brand name products are developed from inter-firm developed product platforms. The inter-firm platform adds perspectives not considered in previous research. In this article areas related to the inter-firm product platform integration process are described. The study is a longitudinal, deep, explorative study aimed at identifying managerial challenges to inter-firm platform development and how they can be dealt with. Analysis shows that the factory sequence is a critical factor when developing inter-firm platform architecture. Also, making architectural concessions without jeopardising brand uniqueness places new demands on managers involved in the development processes. Further, we found a reciprocal interdependence between technological and managerial factors that created a need for innovative organisational and managerial solutions. Finally, reciprocal interdependences add complementary theoretical knowledge on how to better control and understand areas that hamper inter-firm product development projects from attaining cost-effective solutions and economies of scale.

The Role of Platform Architecture Characteristics in Flexible Decision-Making

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (08) ◽  
pp. 1950061 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haluk Yoeruer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Time Delay ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Platform Architecture ◽  
Platform Development

The platform-based product development strategy is well-known as an efficient development methodology for high variety products in many industries. The development of a physical platform prior to the development of platform-based products receives more and more importance in industrial practice and academic research. Through the upstream development of the product platform there can be a significant time delay between the planning of a platform and the development of the final platform-based product. This time delay is even more reinforced by the fact that product platforms have a longer usage time than a single product. During this time, market dynamics can negatively affect the decisions which are made in the upstream product platform development project. Flexible decision-making within platform development projects will be therefore a key challenge to develop a successful product platform in a dynamic market environment. The influence of the different platform architecture characteristics, being one of the most crucial decisions within a platform project, is evaluated in this paper, regarding flexible decision-making. In total, five key characteristics of platform architectures are identified from literature and described. The “degree of module and component reuse” which specifies closed and open platforms, the “degree of modularization versus integration” which specifies the main function structure of the platform, the “degree of scalability” which describes the potential for scaling main functions, the “degree of commonality” which from top-down specifies the common unchanged parts across all product variants within the product family, and “the share of platform modules developed within a platform project”. Based on the case study analysis of well-known and often cited platform development publications, this study shows that a significant number of platform development decisions are affected by the different characteristics of platform architectures, in terms of flexible decision-making. Based on the findings, this paper provides a new perspective to introduce development flexibility in platform projects by using the distinct characteristics of platform architectures which support flexible decision-making.

ppXML: Towards Generic and Extensible Modelling of Platform Products

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Q. Huang ◽  
S. Bin ◽  
K. L. Mak
Keyword(s):  
Web Services ◽  
Product Development ◽  
Mass Customization ◽  
Data Representation ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Product Platforms ◽  
Extensible Markup ◽  
Platform Development ◽  
Product Platform Development

ppXML is an information infrastructure that enables and facilitates meaningful information and knowledge management within and interoperability between web services (applications) for Platform Product Development (PPD) — a formidable approach to agile product development (APD) for mass customization (MC). There are four folds of meanings in ppXML. Firstly, ppXML represents a set of constructs that are consistent with concepts and methods of Platform Product Development for Mass Customization. Secondly, derived from XML (eXtensible Markup Language) as a sublanguage, ppXML is a standard and yet extensible modeling language dedicated to the modelling of products and product platforms for PPD web services. Thirdly, ppXML serves as a product platform repository and a PPD web service registry, together with a set of online facilities for data representation and transformation between different components and parties involved in the web services. Finally, ppXML is a proof-of-theconcept online PPD portal, incorporating some essential web-based Decision Support Systems (DSS) for product platform development and product platform customization. This paper presents an overview of ppXML together with its background and underlying philosophy.

STAKEHOLDERS, SPATIAL LOCATIONS AND TIME HORIZONS IN AN EXTENDED SOCIAL COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS: A CASE OF PIPALPANKHA WATER RESOURCE PROJECT

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 245-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. RAM BABU ◽  
NALLATHIGA RAMAKRISHNA
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Social Cost ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Time Horizons ◽  
Spatial Locations

Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) has been serving as an important tool for decision making with regard to the development projects involving large investments. The Social Cost-Benefit Analysis (SCBA) is an extension of the CBA to certain social impacts, which hitherto were not measured. As the impacts of development projects on ecology and environment assumed importance, measuring the corresponding costs and benefits also began to assume significance. With the advancement in economic valuation techniques over time, measurement could be done and the framework of SCBA has been extended to incorporate the same. Moreover, unlike the CBAs, which do not account for the distributional aspects, the SCBA can potentially account for these. This paper presents a case study of extending the SCBA framework to include social and environmental impacts of a large water resource development project in India. It emphasises the distribution of project benefits and costs over stakeholders, spatial locations and time horizons so as to demonstrate the utility of extended SCBA in project decision making. It is observed that both the numeraire measure i.e. cost-benefit ratio, as well as the distributional analysis present a favourable case for the project.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document