Platform re-use lessons from the automotive industry

International audienceFirms move from the management of unique projects to multi-project management based on a platform strategy that reduces lead-time and development cost, enhances reliability, allows mass customization and increases manufacturing flexibility. While the major challenges of the platform design have been highlighted, the management of the platform lifecycle was under studied. We address this missing point by considering the evolution of the platform during its life cycle. For that purpose, we have carried out a field methodology research at a car manufacturer six years after the successful setting of the platform strategy. We analyzed at a fine-grained level the development of a second generation product on this existing platform. Using a model that traces the design decisions taken during this development, we have identified that in order to reuse the platform over two generations, the engineers implicitly apply, besides the design rules that correspond to the very definition of platform strategy as presented in the literature such as the carryover and the lean design, a learning routine that challenges these rules. We designated this routine by “smart reuse” because it enables the reuse of the platform from one generation to another. We highlight the interplay between the products and the platform that co-evolve. We point out the reciprocal prescription relationships between the products and the platform. This co-evolution operates through two levels: between the product planning and the platform on one hand and the product development and the platform on the other. It has organizational implications that point out the central role of the Platform Director in the platform reuse. Eventually, we outlined the platform architecture issue, mainly its modularity, and its impact on the platform progressive renewal. This research that addresses the sustainability of the platform is exploratory: it reveals ideas that need to be validated and tested through other methods and in other industrial contexts