Platform driven development of product families : linking theory with practice

Firms in most industries increasingly are considering platform-based approaches to reduce complexity and better leverage investments in product design, manufacturing and marketing. Literature addresses a variety of concepts related to platform thinking: component standardization, product architecture, product platform, process platform, customer platform, brand platform, global platform and product family development. In our paper we provide an overview of key topics related to platform and product family development as found in literature. We also use a multiple-case approach to investigate why and how three technology-driven companies adopted platform thinking in their development process. We discuss the rationale, but also the perceived risks and associated problems behind the process to create and manage product families and their underlying platforms. In the paper we will further show that although widely advocated, the knowledge and experience of how to apply platforms and product families in product development, platform driven development of product families is still only a young emerging field, both in theory and in practice.