Product platform design: method and application Timothy W. Simpson, Jonathan R.A. Maier, Farrokh Mistree Abstract In this paper we focus on scale-based product families derived from scalable product platforms that can be exploited from both a functional and a manufacturing standpoint to increase the potential bene®ts of having a common platform. While many companies have been successful with scalable product platforms, few, if any, have instituted a systematic approach to design i) the product platform and ii) the corresponding family of products which are scaled around the product platform. Accordingly, in this paper we address the following question: How can a scalable product platform and its resulting product family be ef®ciently and effectively modeled, analyzed, and designed? After a comprehensive review of the literature we in- troduce the Product Platform Concept Exploration Method PPCEM) which has been developed to facilitate the design of a family of products based on a scalable product platform. By way of illustration, we design a family of ten universal electric motors that are scaled around a common motor platform to realize a variety of torque requirements. Further, to mitigate the paucity of examples in this domain, we provide detailed information for the universal electric motor example to enable other researchers to benchmark their methods with this exam- ple. We evaluate the effectiveness of the PPCEM by com- paring the family of motors obtained using the PPCEM to a group of individually optimized motors. We evaluate the ef®ciency of the PPCEM by comparing the computational expense of designing the family of motors using the PPCEM to that of optimizing each motor individually. We conclude that the PPCEM provides an ef®cient and ef- fective means to design a scalable product platform and corresponding product family, promoting increased commonality within the product family with minimal performance tradeoff. Keywords Product family á Product platform á Commonality á Universal electric motor Nomenclature A wa Cross-sectional area of armature wire mm 2 ) A wf Cross-sectional area of ®eld wire mm 2 ) DSP Decision support problem H Magnetizing intensity Aáturns/min) I Electric current A) l g Length of air gap mm) L Stack length cm) M Mass kg) g Ef®ciency N c Number of turns of wire on the armature N s Number of turns of wire on the ®eld, per pole PPCEM Product platform concept exploration method P Gross power output W) r o Outer radius of the stator cm) t Thickness of the stator mm) T Torque Nm) V t Terminal voltage V) Glossary · Product family: a group of related products that share common features, components, and subsystems; and satisfy a variety of market niches. A product family Received: 15 November 2000 / Revision received: 30 March 2001 Accepted: 30 March 2001 / Published online: 27 July 2001 Ó Springer-Verlag 2001 T.W. Simpson Departments of Mechanical & Nuclear and Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA J.R.A. Maier Clemson Research in Engineering Design and Optimization Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-0921, USA F. Mistree &) Systems Realization Laboratory, G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0405, USA E-mail: farrokh.mistree@me.gatech.edu Tel.: +1-404-894-8412/9342 Fax: +1-404-894-8412/9342 We gratefully acknowledge David Schooley and Doug Dawson from Georgia Tech and Professor Rhett George from Duke University for their help in developing the universal motor analysis model. Timothy W. Simpson was supported by a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship during his doctoral study. Jonathan Maier was supported as an un- dergraduate research assistent. We acknowledge NSF Grant DMI- 9612327 for its support. Original paper Res Eng Design 13 2001) 2±22 DOI 10.1007/s001630100002 2