The use of a product platform has been acknowledged as a strategic enabler for product family development and mass customisation. However, many companies struggle with adopting the common platform approach building upon pre-defined modules and components as it constrains the fulfilment of unique customer requirements and a rapid introduction of new technologies. These are the conditions under which manufacturing companies acting as suppliers operates, where unique solutions are delivered to different business customers, market segments or brands. This work reports the results from case studies of platform development conducted in collaboration with five product developing and manufacturing companies. The focus of this paper is on their initial states; including how they work with their product concept before a development project is started, the character of requirements and the adoption of product platforms. The main contribution of this work is a presentation of criteria on, and identification of, new platform elements termed design assets. These are introduced as a means to enable diverse types of resources to be reused in a company and a pragmatic way to bridge the gap between the physical products and the knowledge, tools and methods needed to realise these.

One problem in incremental product development is that geometric models are limited in their ability to explore radical alternative design variants. In this publication, a function modeling approach is suggested to increase the amount and variety of explored alternatives, since function models (FM) provide greater model flexibility. An enhanced function-means (EF-M) model capable of representing the constraints of the design space as well as alternative designs is created through a reverse engineering process. This model is then used as a basis for the development of a new product variant. This work describes the EF-M model's capabilities for representing the design space and integrating novel solutions into the existing product structure and explains how these capabilities support the exploration of alternative design variants. First-order analyses are executed, and the EF-M model is used to capture and represent already existing design information for further analyses. Based on these findings, a design space exploration approach is developed. It positions the FM as a connection between legacy and novel designs and, through this, allows for the exploration of more diverse product concepts. This approach is based on three steps-decomposition, design, and embodiment-A nd builds on the capabilities of EF-M to model alternative solutions for different requirements. While the embodiment step of creating the novel product's geometry is still a topic for future research, the design space exploration concept can be used to enable wider, more methodological, and potentially automated design space exploration. 

Modules are often considered the basis of product platforms by enabling a variety of product variants based on interchangeable modules. In this way, modules enable efficient utilization of resources through economies of scale. The purpose of this work is to improve the product realization process by introducing a new model for module classification that enable companies to structure their assets and formalizing them in the development system. The modules developed following this methodology contains both physical resources and non-physical resources that can be reused in a structured way, thereby improving the efficiency of the development process. 

Research and development is a knowledge-intense activity where HR departments must balance many internal tensions, such as that between development versus project management, or research versus product standardisation. The first issue may ensure long-term survival and the second, short-term profitability. Another contrasting pair of issues is technical knowledge vs. administrative knowledge. Forging a career path in a manufacturing business often entails abandoning the technical work for the benefit of completing administrative or management work. The chapter discusses how HR departments can handle knowledge management and provide new ways to benefit both the individual and the company.

Modularisation and platform strategies enable efficient utilization of resources through economies of scale and are therefore increasingly important for manufacturing companies. On the product side, modules are often considered the basis of product platforms by enabling a variety of product variants by combining interchangeable modules into different products. On the process side, modularisation enables faster and cheaper development of new product variants by reusing physical components, interfaces, and production equipment.

The benefits of product platforms and modularisation have led two global product developing and manufacturing companies to initiate research projects within this field. The companies have previously made unsuccessful attempts to implement modularisation founded on a componentbased approach and the firms are now searching for other methods to get the benefits of modularisation.

This paper describes the initial state of practice in modularisation and product platforms in the two companies in their attempts to move from a purely physical approach to modularisation into the universal view that is presented in the Design Platform approach. Here, a platform is viewed as an evolutionary entity involving several company assets such as processes, knowledge, methods, and relationships which are essential to gain the benefits of platforms also in the development phase. The Design Platform contains various concrete resources such as the geometry of physical components, but also inhomogeneous resources such as design rules, processes, methods and design automation.

The results point to specific barriers that the companies experience when trying to adopt a modularisation strategy. Several barriers are experienced by both companies while some are specific for one of the companies. Through several workshops, the concepts of the Design Platform and a flexible view on modularisation are introduced, and their possibilities are elaborated and appreciated by the workshop participants.

Many manufacturing companies are suppliers that deliver unique solutions to different business customers. Intense quotation work, with a high demand on accuracy and quick response, and development projects executed in close collaboration with customers and other actors characterize these companies. The projects can run for years or a few weeks depending on the business. Changes of requirements are frequent and technology development required for improved functionality, sustainability and competitiveness. The use of a product platform has been acknowledged as a strategic enabler for product family development and mass customization. However, companies struggle with adopting the common platform approach building upon pre-defined modules and components as it constraints the fulfilment of unique customer requirements and the introduction of new technology at high pace. This work reports the results from case studies conducted in collaboration with four companies. They are in many ways different but face the same challenges when it comes to customization, fluctuating requirements and need of high pace in technology advancement. The focus of this paper is on their initial states; including how they work with their product concept before the customer entry point, the work that is initiated when an order is accepted, the character of requirements and the adoption of product platforms. Criteria on, and identification of, new platforms models, termed Design Assets, are presented followed by a mapping to the Design Platform concept pointing out areas upcoming work, both scientifically and at the companies.

In most development processes, there is an early phase dedicated to creative concept development aiming at finding solutions to the problem at hand. To arrive at a high-quality solution, several ideas may be conceived and evaluated. However, emerging information and knowledge about product concepts is often not shared on a corporate level since only the final result is documented. This can lead to a significant waste, especially in Set-based design. This paper presents a pragmatic way to structure emerging design information, transferring individual design knowledge to a corporate level. It introduces the Concept Dashboard to track the progress of the concept development and uses an industry standard project workflow system to store and retrieve emerging concept knowledge.

Custom engineered products require an engineer-to-order approach in development, quotation preparation and order processing. This work reports the result of a three-and-a-half-year project were the objective was to develop means for implementation and management of computer support for engineering design and production engineering of customized products. Efficient re-use is essential for success and decision is identified as the core concept to trace tasks executed, knowledge used, design rationale and artefacts developed throughout the product realization process.

There is a trend toward increased customization of goods to satisfy a wide range of customers using product platforms. However, there is an erroneous notion that product platforms can only be used to provide economic viability in production thanks to the reuse of physical components among a family of products. Yet, this is a limited perception of the potential of a product platform. In this article, an object-oriented approach to support the development of product platforms is proposed to increase efficiency through reuse and flexibility of designs among a family of products. Two modes of the platform development process are addressed: platform preparation and platform execution. Platform preparation prescribes the methods needed to model platform objects, using enhanced function-means models and set-based concurrent engineering processes. During the platform execution process, sets of design alternatives can be configured concurrently throughout the conceptual, system, and detailed phases of the platform development. Three cases illustrate how the same approach may be used in different design scenarios: design space exploration and extension, supply-chain collaboration, and configure-to-order. The approach supports system architects and design engineers in making design decisions that propel the platform development work by enabling analysis in stages where designs are immature and evaluating the goodness of the alternatives early. Ultimately, product platforms can be efficiently developed for modularity and scalability to find feasible product variants and meet the needs of a multitude of customers.