# Product Platforming Mindset Platforming should be on everyone's mind, not just the product designers' and engineers'. It is not a one-time task but rather a **habit** and a **way of thinking**. So, what goes into cultivating a platform mindset? Here is a funny comic that illustrates the challenge that an aerospace company might face when developing a new airplane: ![[Pasted image 20241208140831.png]] These satirical drawings by C.W. Miller (1944) are nicknamed “Dream Airplanes.” However, like all good satire, they reveal a challenging truth: Every group within the team brings a different perspective and demand to the table. - The weights group wants something light and dreams of a plane made of balsa and microfilm. - The maintenance group wants easy access to every part and envisions a plane with an absurd amount of service hatches. - The production engineering group wants a streamlined assembly process, so they dream up a plane that is just three wooden planks nailed together. "Dream Airplanes" is a humorous take on what happens when there is no concurrent engineering mindset. ### Evolution of a Concurrent Engineering Mindset A similar conflict of interest exists when companies want to create a variety of **different products** or **lines**. How do we define opportunities for commonality so that the whole product family works in harmony? How does a firm reconcile differences and similarities across multiple products? In many ways, our understanding of platforming has evolved from a **concurrent engineering mindset**. ### Moving to a Platform Mindset Product platforming has undergone the same evolution over the past two decades. Today, we have a great body of knowledge, tools, and methods for how best to approach product families and platforms. Now, instead of thinking about cross-functional teams that span multiple disciplines, we seek to create platforms that span **multiple product offerings**. The key goals of this challenge are to: - Leverage resources across multiple development projects - Reach our goals of reducing the time to market, shortening lead time, and lowering costs - Maximize commonality, reuse, and standardization - Increase efficiency and improve responsiveness The importance of platforming has increased notably in the past three to four years as companies enter **global markets**. In many cases, platforms are critical to remain successful and cost-effective while competing in markets around the world. An example of a firm with a globally distributed supply and manufacturing chain is, for instance, the BMW Third-Generation Platform. Assembly for this platform occurs at nine locations around the world. ![[Pasted image 20241208141239.png]] There are **benefits to platforming** for both the firm and the customer, and a company chooses how to present those benefits. For example, in 2013, the Renault-Nissan Alliance announced their Common Module Family with the following goals: - 30–40% **reduction in cost** per model - 20–30% **reduction in part costs** - Deployed across five continents and ten countries by 2020 - The first CMF offering enabling 14 models and covering 1.6 million vehicles per year in compact and large car segments - **70% of variants** to be derived from CMF In 2016, Subaru touted the **handling, safety,** and **ride comfort** of its new Global Platform, as well as the following achievements: - 70% more rigid - 50% less body roll - 40% better crash energy absorption Platforming across multiple products is a challenge in itself. Now, a firm also has to platform across **multiple global markets**, which adds complexities and organizational challenges. Questions quickly arise, for example: - Do we have one global platform, regional platforms, or none at all? The final option is valid: There are situations in which platforming is appropriate and other times when it is not. - Different places have different **needs**, **standards**, and **legal** **regulations**. For example, the United Kingdom and France are neighbors with a key difference: Drivers sit on different sides of the car. So, cars sold on either side of the Strait of Dover will have a different design. - Where are you in the market? Do you have a low-end product or a high-end product? Buyers in a new region may not **perceive a** **brand** well enough to pay a **premium** for it. Does a Hummer have the same clout in Minsk as it does in Miami? - What is available and when? If we build a factory in Dakar, will we be able to get raw materials and parts from the same supplier as we do in Detroit? - Global platforms present many organizational challenges for firms: - Localized design teams vs. distributed teams: Where are our staff located throughout the globe? - Cultural differences: Do teams understand each other? Do we share values and communication styles? Do we work the same hours and at the same speed? - Time zone differences: When can we schedule a call so the Tokyo team can meet with the Toronto team, both during business hours? - Reporting requirements: Who is in charge and what is the hierarchical structure? ### From Platforms to Shared Modules While 20 years ago, the common platform was a monolith, constituting over 50% of the vehicle, today there is more reliance on smaller modules that can be mixed and matched to increase the variety and allow for customization. Some firms even oscillate between decentralized and centralized strategies and may opt for one strategy or another depending on the model. ![[Pasted image 20241208141949.png]] ### Moving Beyond a Mindset Exposing people to the idea of platforms and examples of platforms gets them thinking about it, but the process doesn't stop there. Sure, there are opportunities to get a few “easy wins” with minimal effort, such as with standardizing a component. In the long run, however, platforming requires discipline. Companies need to learn, tailor, and use the tools and methods to suit their specific needs. Perhaps even more importantly, they need to maintain the rigor to repeat the process over and over again. There are **ten key words** that a development team should define so they are using common vocabulary: - Product family - Product platform - Variants - Derivatives - Commonality - Subsystems - Module - Parts and components - Options - Features In the [[Software|software]] and service industry, you will see additional keywords such as **software library** and service-oriented architecture. ### Key Terms #### Families, Platforms, and Products ##### Product Family A **product family** is a group of related products that share **common** **features**, **parts**, and **subsystems** yet satisfy a variety of markets. An example of this is the iPhone family. In product families, sharing and commonality is **intentional** and **deliberate**, and those choices are embodied in the **product platform**. Product families stand in contrast to **product lines**, in which there may or may not be any sharing. If there is commonality in a product line, it is usually unintended. ##### Product Platform A **product platform** is the collection of the common elements, especially the underlying core technology, implemented across a range of products. This means that the **parts**, **subsystems**, testing capabilities, design process, and more are common across a range of products. ##### Products: Variants and Derivatives Individual products are then **variants** or **derivatives**. They are derived from the platform by: - Adding, removing, and/or substituting one or more modules, in the case of a module-based product family - Scaling or “stretching” the platform in one or more dimensions, in the case of a scale-based product family Most platforms and families are created with some combination of these two strategies, and your firm will need to find the right balance depending on the product. A product platform is not just underlying elements that are common but also the architectural rules and interfaces. A platform: - Is a set of elements and architectural rules that enable a set of planned product offerings - Enables multiple product offerings, allowing increased leverage and reuse across the product line - Has architectural rules and standards that govern how technologies and subsystems (“platform elements”) can be integrated - Defines the basic value proposition, competitive differentiation, capabilities, cost structure, and life cycle for a set of products #### Common, Variant, and Unique Parts Consider a set of three products. Each product has variant parts, unique parts, and common parts. ##### Unique Parts Unique parts are, as the name implies, unique to only one variant. Unique parts are used to differentiate one variant from others. ##### Variant Parts Variant parts are **shared by two or more** products that differ in one or more aspect, such as features, size, or color. ##### Common Parts Common parts are **shared by** **all** of the product variants and are **identical**. These are also known as the platform elements. > [!info] > When designing a product family, the goal is to: > - Maximize the number of common parts > - Minimize the number of unique parts as each one requires testing, sourcing, and validation, which all incur cost > - Use the most cost-effective variant parts possible ### Module-Based vs. Scale-Based Product Families #### Module-Based Product Families The general notion of a module-based product family is to create derivatives by adding, subtracting, and scaling components. The process is as follows: - Decompose products into their representative functions - Develop modules with one-to-one or many-to-one correspondence with functions - Group common functional modules into a common **product platform** - Standardize interfaces to facilitate addition, subtraction, and/or substitution of modules to create product variants ![[Pasted image 20241208143018.png]] #### Scale-Based Product Families In contrast to a modular-based strategy, this method involves developing a product platform that can be **“scaled”** or **“stretched”** in one or more dimensions to satisfy a variety of market niches. An example of this is the [[Engineering is Broken (but we can fix it)#Overstretched Designs (The Dark Side of Reuse)|Boeing 737]] product family. In this case, the fuselage is "stretched" to accommodate more passengers or cargo. There are three product platforms: 1. Initial models: 100 and 200 2. Classic models: 300, 400, and 500 3. Next Generation: 600, 700, 800, and 900 As you may have inferred, Boeing gained experience in platforming over time, such that later "generations" have more derivatives than the initial model. The Boeing 737 family competes primarily against the Airbus A320 family. ![[Pasted image 20241208143206.png]]