Study On The Product Platform With Case Application To Automotive Parts

There is still fairly big gap of China's vehicle and automotive parts industry withthat in the developed countries in term of the overall capabilities, though Chinaproduces and sells the most of vehicles in the world since2009. Reducing the cost andpromoting the efficiency is always the everlasting topic for a company or even a sector.It is essential for China's OEMs to implement the stragety of product platform,modularization and integrated supplying in order to compete in the market. Meanwhilethe local auto parts suppliers should make use of this kind of advanced developmentand production method by introducing the stragety of product platform andmodularization to ensure the China auto industry's sustainable development in a longterm.With the basis of product platform theory, this paper demonstrated the concept ofstandardization, series, modularization and economic principle of the platform strategy.It summarized the history and development trend of global vehicle and auto partsindustry, analyzed the product platform practice and project management proceduresfrom different auto industry regions. The major pattern of relationships between theOEMs and parts suppliers was also discussed in this paper. Finally, the paperconducted a feasibility study on actual project of platform side door latch of Icompany from the point of company introduction, project background and thestructure of project management, typically focusing on the market investigation,technical evaluation and economic analysis.The major approaches to the productplatform was given in the article and also suggestions to the optimization of projectmanagement organization. It validates and concludes that the strategy of productplatform is the best choice for China's auto parts industry development. This paper canprovide some thoughts or reference for China Auto parts industry.