Platform Lifecycle Support using Set-Based Concurrent Engineering

Doctoral thesis, 2014

Product development companies strive to provide their customers with high quality products, more quickly than their competitors, using as few resources as possible. One way of managing all three aspects at the same time is to reuse old, quality assured designs and knowledge in new products. A common way to do that is to create a platform with designs that are reusable in many different products. Traditionally, research on platforms has focused on finding ways to provide manufacturing with a low number of parts to be able to increase utilization of expensive production equipment. However, reuse of parts does not benefit all businesses, especially those where customer requirements continuously change. To cut development lead-time, other types of reuse are necessary. The use of platforms based on core technologies and re-configurable systems as platform elements may provide the necessary support. They enable reuse on a more abstract level, reusing technologies, requirements and concepts rather than ready designed parts. This thesis elaborates on support for working with the type of platforms that are integrated across the lifecycle of a product. The studies in this thesis show that platform approaches in literature today do not cover the need to support holistic platform development across all stages of a lifecycle. As a solution, configurable system elements are used to model platforms and the links between the lifecycles. The development processes and models may be further infused with set-based concurrent engineering to provide a framework for efficient development. These principles are integrated into the models and the processes to enhance the ability to manage the complex relationships within and between parts of the platform throughout the lifecycle. Further, development platforms may be supported by a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) architecture for engineering-to-order configuration, but it can also serve as a tool to learn about the knowledge gaps that need to be filled to get a product that meets requirements.