An Integrated Approach to Technology Platform and Product Platform Development

Platforms may enable offering a variety of products to the market while keeping the development cost down. Reusing design knowledge is a key concept, whether manifested as reusing parts, ideas, concepts or technologies. This paper describes processes and IT-solutions for holistically working with both technology platforms and product platforms. A platform framework was developed for managing information and to support the processes. The use of the framework is illustrated through a case study performed at a sub-supplier in the aerospace industry focusing on technology development, platform-based product development and platform configuration. A wiki system supports the technology platform, containing electronic guidelines, methods and information about the technologies. To support the product platform, a Product Lifecycle Management architecture is created. A Turbine Rear Structure from a turbofan engine is used as an example, requiring several different analysis technologies to be used and coordinated when creating a variant. The solution is a PLM architecture created based on the technology platform. It integrates a Product Data Management system, a Computer Aided Design tool, two Computer Aided Engineering tools and a configurator