Advances in product family and product platform design : methods & applications This book highlights recent advances that have been made to support product family and product platform design and successful applications in industry. It provides not only motivation for product family and product platform designthe why and when of platformingbut also methods and tools to support the design and development of families of products based on shared platformsthe what how and where of platforming. It begins with an overview of recent product family design research to introduce readers to the breadth of the topic and progresses to more detailed topics and design theory to help designers engineers and project managers plan architect and implement platform based product development strategies in their companies. This book also: Presents state of the art methods and tools for product family and product platform design. Adopts an integrated systems view on product family and product platform design Details successful applications and case studies from a variety of industries. Combines contributions from leading experts from industry as well as academia Is accessible to novice practitioners as well as experienced designers and engineers pt. I. Platform planning and strategy pt. II. Platform architecting and design pt. III. Product family development and implementation pt. IV. Applications and case studies