Research On Configuration And Evaluation Of Product Platform Extent

The platform-based design and production is one of widely implemented MC strategies to create product families that provide sufficient variety to the market while maintaining economies of scale.Appropriate product platform configuration and architecture for product family requires estimating expected financial benefits both in terms of savings due to commonality and revenues due to successful product performance in the market.The question of finding the optimal platform extent,that is,the right number of platforms,the corresponding product platform configuration for a product family and product family strategy is to achieve a rudimentary understanding of the interplay among product architecture,manufacturing,cost,engineering performance, value,demand and the role of competition.The dissertation explored and demonstrated the platform extent problem rigorously addressed both quantitatively and qualitatively in the perspectives of product platform configuration,multiple product platform configuration and product platform strategy valuation.Firstly,based on the background and related literature review on research areas such as evolution of product platform concept and theory,various platform strategies and platform techniques,product platform based configuration,and heuristic approach to solve large scale optimization problems.An approach for platform-based configuration of product family production is put forward.Considering the problem of determining a product platform configuration for the production of a product family while minimizing the overall production cost,the problem is formulated as a general optimization problem of minimizing the production cost using product platform architecture while satisfying the part assembly constraints.Both an optimal formulation and an evolutionary strategy based on Genetic Algorithm are presented and the approache is illustrated with an example of a family.Secondly,given the aforementioned approach and taking the stochastic demands into account,a single platform configuration approach for product family is presented.The problem is formulated as a two stage stochastic programming model with recourse.The objective is to minimize the total production cost that includes the cost of production of platforms,cost of production of products using the platforms,holding cost for unused platforms and stockout cost for lost demands.This problem is solved using two approaches,exact method and a genetic algorithm based heuristic that combines integer programming to solve the problem.The two approaches are investigated and their importance for various problem instances is presented.The approaches are illustrated and validated by using the same example of a product family.Thirdly,considering the problem of proposing multiple platforms for the production of a given product family while minimizing the overall production cost,the methodology considered the given demand for each product variant,with the decision variables of the optimal number of platforms,optimal configuration of each platform,and assignment of the products to the platforms.The advantage for using multiple platforms over a single platform is ability to optimally match products to a particular platform.The problem is formulated as an integer program,and both the optimal formulation and an evolutionary strategy based on genetic algorithm are presented.The approach is illustrated by using an example of a procut family.Finally,the dissertation elaborated a comprehensive methodology for evaluating the platform-based product family strategy roadmaps.The proposed methodology addressed the issues concerned with strategy embedded with future uncertainties and combined real options valuation and game analysis using a game theoretic approach at different nodes of the decision tree by introducing games that represent competitive strategic moves which will help decision-makers to make intelligent decisions during the course of product platform strategy.The investment opportunities with important competitive or strategic dimensions change the decision-making flexibility and thus the value of real options.The proposed real option-game approach addressed the influence of competitor's move on evaluating real options and decistion-making timing in the implementing process of platform strategy in the different information accession and competitive senarioes.Given the above-mentioned analysis,the steps and models to evaluate multistage product platform strategy are discussed and demonstrated in the end.