A value chain oriented approach for the development of global platforms in the systems business

Abstract

Globalisation pressures lead companies of the capital-intensive goods industry to follow the example of the automotive industry and develop global platform-based products. One of the most difficult tasks is to cover all kinds of local standards, laws, and regulations within standardised products. Supplementary strong variations in the purchasing power of customers, education of work forces, and availability of technology or mere fashions in local markets have an impact on regional business processes. Thus, undesirable and unplanned redesigns become necessary during the localisation of a global product family into its regional markets. Hence, this research discusses a generic platform development process adaptive for the conditions of the systems and project business. The process and its methods have been implemented at Schindler Elevators Ltd during the development of a new global product family. Supported by a matrix-based method, called the Variant Indication Analysis, the proposed platform process incorporates regionally varying product life cycles and value chain requirements into the development of the global platform. This process is further supported by a Component Box platform model offering robustness for component reuse and flexibility for local differentiation. Moreover, it facilitates the collaborative product development by offering enhanced transparency throughout the entire process.

Keywords:

• product platforms
• product structuring
• globalisation
• value chain
• product life cycles

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the sponsors of this research Mr. Karl Weinberger, Head of Schindler New Technologies, and Mr. Bernhard Gysi, Platform Operating Officer at Schindler Elevator Ltd. The authors would also like to acknowledge the support from the product executors at Schindler who contributed with their invaluable experience to this research.