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.

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.

Shape Commonalization to Develop Common Platform for Product Family

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sagar Chowdhury ◽  
Zahed Siddique
Keyword(s):  
Product Family ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Market Place ◽  
Cad Models ◽  
Platform Development ◽  
The Common ◽  
Index Value ◽  
Challenging Situation ◽  
Commonality Index ◽  
Common Platform

Current market place is highly competitive and frequently changing, to survive companies need to quickly respond to the customers’ requirements. This challenging situation demands a robust platform design and development process to produce variety of products in the shortest possible time. The common components for a set of similar products under a family can be grouped into a common platform. Development of product platform requires measuring the similarity among a set of products. This paper presents an approach to measure the similarity among a set of CAD models of products to develop a common product platform. The measured similarity of geometries can allow designers to identify components that have the potential to be included in the common platform. The degree of similarity is determined by extracting the information and developing a suitable commonality index for a set of CAD models. The commonality index values are then used to determine the common platform for a set of assembly products by developing and calculating the Average Assembly Platform index value. The overall approach is followed by two case studies: Cell Phone casing models and Vacuum Cleaner models.

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.

A Product Platform Development Method Using QFD

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaeil Park ◽  
Dongmin Shin
Keyword(s):  
Quality Function Deployment ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Product Lines ◽  
Development Method ◽  
Major Market ◽  
Technical Requirements ◽  
Platform Development ◽  
Product Platform Development ◽  
Common Components

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was initially developed to aid in designing a quality product by interconnecting customer needs in a market segment with technical requirements. Although it assists in improving product quality, it does not have a function to examine technical requirements across the major market segments serviced by a company’s product lines and to aid in developing product platform concepts. In this paper, we present a product platform development method using QFD that aids in developing platform concepts as well as improving the understanding of product family design. This method includes platform planning and platform concept exploration. Platform planning describes the extent to which a variety of products share common components, and platform concepts then are explored, which are the arrangement of common components. This paper uses an electric razor example to illustrate the proposed method.

Design for Variety: A Methodology for Developing Product Platform Architectures

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark V. Martin ◽  
Kosuke Ishii
Keyword(s):  
Development Project ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Step Method ◽  
Platform Architecture ◽  
Coupling Index ◽  
Product Development Project ◽  
Two Indices ◽  
Generational Variety Index ◽  
Design For Variety ◽  
A Company

Abstract Developing a robust, product platform architecture brings an important competitive advantage to a company. The major benefit is reduced design effort and time-to-market for future generations of the product. This paper describes a step-by-step method that aids companies in developing such a product platform architecture. Using the concept of specification “flows” within a product development project, the design for variety (DFV) method develops two indices to measure a product’s architecture. The first index is the Generational Variety Index (GVI), a measure for the amount of redesign effort required for future designs of the product. The second index is the Coupling Index (CI), a measure of the coupling among the product components. The design team uses these two indices to develop a decoupled architecture that requires less design effort for follow-on products.

Product Platform Design: A Graph Grammar Approach

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahed Siddique ◽  
David W. Rosen
Keyword(s):  
Mass Customization ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Graph Grammar ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Product Portfolio ◽  
Graph Grammars ◽  
The Core ◽  
Platform Development ◽  
The Common ◽  
Common Platform

Abstract The current marketplace can be characterized by the need for variety, faster time to market, and decrease in cost. To survive companies are shifting from a mass production mode to mass customization to provide the necessary variety. One of the key elements of mass customization is the product platform. In this paper we will investigate the use of graph grammars to develop common platforms for a set of similar products and to specify the product portfolio supported by the platform. To facilitate development of common platforms a formal product family architecture representation is presented which separates the core and the options to facilitate the identification of the common platform. Graphs are used to represent the core for function and structure viewpoints, and grammars to specify the relationships among the core and the options. Arguments on suitability of graph grammars in common platform development, are also presented in the paper.

Multi-Objective Design Optimization for Product Platform and Product Family Design Using Genetic Algorithms

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satish V. K. Akundi ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Patrick M. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Genetic Algorithms ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Optimization Techniques ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
Nsga Ii ◽  
Pareto Solution ◽  
Multi Objective

Many companies are using product families and platform-based product development to reduce costs and time-to-market while increasing product variety and customization. Multi-objective optimization is increasingly becoming a powerful tool to support product platform and product family design. In this paper, a genetic algorithm-based optimization method for product family design is suggested, and its application is demonstrated using a family of universal electric motors. Using an appropriate representation for the design variables and by adopting a suitable formulation for the genetic algorithm, a one-stage approach for product family design can be realized that requires no a priori platform decision-making, eliminating the need for higher-level problem-specific domain knowledge. Optimizing product platforms using multi-objective algorithms gives the designer a Pareto solution set, which can be used to make better decisions based on the trade-offs present across different objectives. Two Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithms, namely, NSGA-II and ε-NSGA-II, are described, and their performance is compared. Implementation challenges associated with the use of these algorithms are also discussed. Comparison of the results with existing benchmark designs suggests that the proposed multi-objective genetic algorithms perform better than conventional single-objective optimization techniques, while providing designers with more information to support decision making during product family design.

scholarly journals A survey of methods for evaluating mini-publics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeuchi Ayano
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Practical Case ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Political Decision Making

AbstractPublic participation has become increasingly necessary to connect a wide range of knowledge and various values to agenda setting, decision-making and policymaking. In this context, deliberative democratic concepts, especially “mini-publics,” are gaining attention. Generally, mini-publics are conducted with randomly selected lay citizens who provide sufficient information to deliberate on issues and form final recommendations. Evaluations are conducted by practitioner researchers and independent researchers, but the results are not standardized. In this study, a systematic review of existing research regarding practices and outcomes of mini-publics was conducted. To analyze 29 papers, the evaluation methodologies were divided into 4 categories of a matrix between the evaluator and evaluated data. The evaluated cases mainly focused on the following two points: (1) how to maintain deliberation quality, and (2) the feasibility of mini-publics. To create a new path to the political decision-making process through mini-publics, it must be demonstrated that mini-publics can contribute to the decision-making process and good-quality deliberations are of concern to policy-makers and experts. Mini-publics are feasible if they can contribute to the political decision-making process and practitioners can evaluate and understand the advantages of mini-publics for each case. For future research, it is important to combine practical case studies and academic research, because few studies have been evaluated by independent researchers.

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.

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