The Power of Design: Product Innovation in Sustainable Energy Technologies

2.2 Platform-Driven Product Development

Johannes Halman

University of Twente, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Department of Construction Management and Engineering, P.O. Box 217, The Netherlands

2.2.1 Introduction

In a global, intense, and dynamic competitive environment, the development of new products and processes has become a focal point of attention for many companies. Shrinking product life cycles, increasing international competition, rapidly changing technologies, and customers demanding high variety options are some of the forces that drive new development processes. More variety will make it more likely that each consumer finds exactly the option he or she desires, and will allow each individual consumer to enjoy a diversity of options over time. In considering the implementation of product variety, companies are challenged to create this desired variety economically. In their quest to manage product variety, firms in most industries are increasingly considering product development approaches that reduce complexity and better leverage investments in product design, manufacturing, and marketing (Krishnan and Gupta, 2001). Platform thinking, the process of identifying and exploiting commonalities among a firm's offerings, its target markets, and the processes for creating and delivering offerings, appears to be a successful strategy to create variety with an efficient use of resources (Halman, Hofer, and van Vuuren, 2003). Key in this approach is the sharing of components, ...