- Link:
- http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33727
- Collection:
-
- Subject
- Engineering Systems Division.
- Creator:
- Suh, Eun Suk
- Contributors:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division. Olivier L. de Weck. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering
Systems Division.
- Format
- 191 leaves
- Format
- 9716077 bytes
- Format
- 9724112 bytes
- Format
- application/pdf
- Language
- eng
- Publisher
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Rights
- M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See
provided URL for inquiries about permission.
- Rights
- http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
- Type
- Thesis
- Description
- The research contributes to the uncertainty
management of engineering systems by proposing and demonstrating a
way to implement flexible platform strategy to respond to future
uncertainties. In today's competitive market, where market segments
are becoming more fragmented, pressure to develop and market
diverse sets of products is increasing. To meet such market needs
and reduce production cost at the same time, product platform
strategy has been implemented in several different industries.
Using a core set of common platform elements and variant-specific
unique elements, a family of products can be produced to satisfy
various market segments. However, the growing cost of platform
development and undesired side effects of the strategy (e.g.
performance tradeoff, cannibalization) is forcing companies to
design their platforms with flexibility, so they can accommodate
product variants, differentiate these variants, and be economically
flexible to respond to specified future uncertainties. This thesis
introduces a design process to architect flexible product
platforms. The proposed process is demonstrated in two automotive
application case studies.
- Description
- (cont.) In the first case study, a vehicle floor
pan is designed to satisfy two different length requirements, while
being economically robust to future specification change and
component demand. The second case study investigates a vehicle
platform, where the flexible body in white (BIW) platform is
designed for a family of three vehicle variants through
identification of critical elements subset. Results showed that the
flexible BIW platform is less profitable than the inflexible BIW
platform, but when the degree of future uncertainty increases, the
flexible design eventually becomes more profitable. This research
provides additional examples that yet again confirms the general
proposition "flexibility gains value as the degree of uncertainty
increases."
- Description
- by Eun Suk Suh.
- Description
- Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2005.
- Description
- Includes bibliographical references (leaves
155-162).
- Rights
- M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be
viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or
distribution in any format is prohibited without written
permission. See provided URL for inquiries about
permission.
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