Product companies employ platform-based design strategy to simplify design, reduce cost and accelerate time to market of new products. In the automotive industry, a platform represents a set of common design, engineering, and production systems that is used to build any number of distinct models, all based on the same underpinning but are visually entirely different.
Not a new concept, a platform based portfolio is practiced more aggressively and consistently as of late. In response to growth opportunities in global markets, automakers design and manufacture cars tailored to narrow markets and demographics while minimizing the effort and cost of designing and manufacturing parts for each market variant. Ford Motor and Volkswagen are two car manufacturers exercising this strategy most diligently. See a detailed, if incomplete, list of badged models and the platforms they are built upon.
I recently learned that design and manufacturing concepts emphasizing design commonality can be found dating back to the California Gold Rush period, long before Henry Ford introduced in 1913 standardization of parts and manufacturing process that formed the cornerstones of the assembly line.
John “Wheelbarrow Johnny” Studebaker made a small fortune making sturdy wheelbarrows for California gold miners. In 1852 he returned to his home in South Bend, Indiana, to join his brothers in the Studebaker Wagon Corporation that supplied wagons for the Union Army. According to the Seeley Stable Museum in San Diego, by 1868, the company had standardized many common wagon parts to accelerate production and keep prices down. Studebaker also created designs for regional customer needs, such as the “Concord Steel-Axle California Wagon” that was developed especially for the western trade.
By the turn of the century, the Studebaker Corporation entered the new era of ‘horseless carriages’, manufacturing gasoline powered cars and, for a short period, electric cars. Here, again, Studebaker did not follow the common approach of vertical integration and put Studebaker bodies on gasoline-powered chassis purchased from another company.
(Image source: Bar E Ranch)