Understanding platform-based product development: A competency-based perspective

Abstract

Today the competition in product development has intensified through increased demand heterogeneity and shorter product life cycles. An increasingly popular strategy is the use of a platform-based approach to create a successful product family for the purpose of increasing variety, shortening lead-times and reducing costs. However, a clear gap in literature still exists when it comes to understanding how to manage product families and their successive platforms. We do not know enough about the key attributes of platform-based product development which can contribute to a competitive advantage, which in turn leads to the success of a platform. Our research is directed at building a framework to better manage platform-based product development from a competency perspective. The results of our survey research lend support to the concept of product platform competency, and validate four success factors that significantly affect product platform competency, which in turn lead to reduction in the development cost and time. Additionally, our findings further suggest that in a high technologically turbulent environment, some of these factors have even greater impact on product platform competency.