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An automobile platform is a shared set of common design, engineering, and production efforts, as well as major components over a number of outwardly distinct models and even types of automobiles, often from different, but related marques. It is practiced in the automotive industry to reduce the costs associated with the development of products by basing those products on a smaller number of platforms. This further allows companies to create distinct models from a design perspective on similar underpinnings.
Definition and benefits
Platform sharing is a product development method where different products and the brand attached share the same components. The purpose with platform sharing is to reduce the cost and have a more efficient product development process.The companies gain on reduced procurement cost by taking advantage of the commonality of the components. However, this also limits their ability to differentiate the products and imposes a risk of losing the tangible uniqueness of the product. The companies have to make a trade-off between reducing their development costs and the degree of differentiation of the products.
A basic definition of a platform in automobiles, from a technical point of view, includes: underbody and suspensions (with axles) — where the underbody is made of front floor, underfloor, engine compartment and frame (reinforcement of underbody). Key mechanical components that define an automobile platform include:
The floorpan, which serves as a foundation for the chassis and other structural and mechanical components
Front and rear axles and the distance between them - wheelbase
Steering mechanism and type of power steering
Type of front and rear suspensions
Placement and choice of engine and other powertrain components
Vehicle platform-sharing combined with advanced and flexible-manufacturing technology enables automakers to sharply reduce product development and changeover times, while modular design and assembly allow building a greater variety of vehicles from one basic set of engineered components. Many vendors refer to this as product or vehicle architecture. The concept of product architecture is the scheme by which the function of a product is allocated to physical components.
The use of a platform strategy provides several benefits:
Greater flexibility between plants (the possibility of transferring production from one plant to another due to standardization),
Cost reduction achieved through using resources on a global scale,
Increased use of plants (higher productivity due to the reduction in the number of differences), and
Reduction of the number of platforms as a result of their localization on a worldwide basis.
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