Product platform
The Product Platform Rulebook, Edition 1.2 March 2023, published by the Construction Innovation Hub (and authored by Akerlof, Atkins and Mott Macdonald), defines a product platform (PP) as: ‘A kit of parts, associated production processes, and the knowledge, people and relationships required to deliver all or part of construction projects using a platform approach' It continues to outline that 'a product platform provides a stable core which is configured and combined with complementary components (via defined interfaces) to suit a particular project. A product platform also includes the processes tools and equipment required for assembly’.
Product platforms are therefore not buildings but 'common components, processes or knowledge, applied to deliver a range of distinct assets (that may range from specific parts to whole buildings) efficiently through economies of scale and scope'.
The combination of common, repeatable assets with complementary elements, brought together with standard interfaces, enables a product platform to be extended to produce product families (a group of related products that share common features) that serve a variety of market segments.
In leveraging the use of common, repeatable data, systems / components, processes and relationships, product platforms are a way of embedding the principles of industrialisation (and industrialised construction) across what and how we build – the projects, the buildings and parts that form them.
PAS 8700:2025, Modern methods of construction for new build residential properties – Specification, Draft v 3.9, published by bsi in 2024, defines a product platform as an: ‘integrated systems approach that balances variability with repeatability. NOTE A product platform includes a kit of parts, the associated production processes, knowledge, people and relationships required to deliver all or part of the construction project. The core principle is to maximize the use of repeatability where it is most beneficial, whilst ensuring variability where it is most valuable. This allows for efficiency and cost-effectiveness in production, while still offering a degree of customization to meet selected but diverse customer needs. Deploying a product platform across a programme or multiple projects supports realization of economies of scale.’
See also: Platform approach to construction.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- Industrialised construction
- Kit of parts.
- Platform approach to construction.
- Platform approach to design for manufacture and assembly.
- Platform construction.
- Platform.
- Product Platform Deployment Manual.
- Product Platform Development Framework.
- Product Platform Roadmap.
- Product Platform Specification.
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