007-0355 Platform thinking in the automotive industry – managing the dualism between standardization of components for large scale production and variation for market and customer Track title: Product Innovation and Technology Management Danilovic Mike (1), Winroth Mats (2), Ferrándiz Javier(3), and Josa Oriol (3) (1) Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, P.O. Box 1026, SE-551 11 Jönköping, Sweden, Phone: +46 36 10 18 30, Fax: +46 36 16 10 69, E- mail:
[email protected] (2) School of Engineering, Jönköping University, P.O. Box 1026, SE-551 11 Jönköping, Sweden, Phone: +46 36 10 16 40, Fax: +46 36 10 05 98, E-mail:
[email protected] (3) Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain POMS 18th Annual Conference Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. May 4 to May 7, 2007 1 Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference of The Production and Operations Management Society, POMS 2007, May 4-7, 2007, Fairmont Hotel, Dallas, Texas, USA Platform thinking in the automotive industry – managing the dualism between standardization of components for large scale production and variation for market and customer Track title: Product Innovation and Technology Management Danilovic Mike (1), Winroth Mats (2), Ferrándiz Javier(3), and Josa Oriol (3) Abstract Automotive industry faces two major problems. One is to develop standard platforms to reach high volumes and low cost. The other is to use platforms for enabling variation of models that suit customer needs, local market demands, and restrictions. Platform thinking embraces several industrial levels, systems integrators, global and local suppliers, and markets.