easily. The remaining parts of the vehicle are divided into "head"- and system parts. A "head"-part could be the bodywork, or fuel tank, which can significantly differ from one another (cf. BMW GS-Model). System parts are actually common parts (COP = Carry Over Parts), which are copied and adjusted to the particular model. E.g.: Wheels or wagons, totally identical, just another model symbol. Platform sharing among brands One of the first car companies to use this product development approach was General Motors in 1908. General Motors used a single chassis for certain class of model across most of its brands like Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac and Oldsmobile. Later, Chrysler Corporation would do the same for Plymouth, DeSoto and Dodge cars. Ford followed the same principle for Ford and Mercury in US markets. The chassis unit was common with many shared mechanical components while the exterior styling and interior trims were designed according to its individual brand and category. Multiple body variants In recent years for monocoque chassis, platform-sharing combined with advanced and flexible-manufacturing technology enable automakers to sharply reduce product development and changeover times, while modular design and assembly allow building a greater variety of vehicles from one basic set of engineered components. Pictured below is the Nissan MS platform, where designs including 5-door hatchback, sedan, compact SUV and minivan were built on a common floor panel and many shared functional assemblies such as engine, transmission and chassis components. Many vendors refer to this as product or vehicle architecture. The concept of product architecture is the scheme by which the function of a product is allocated to physical components. The use of a platform strategy provides several benefits: Greater flexibility across plants (the possibility of transferring production from one plant to another due to standardization) Cost reduction through using resources on a global scale Increased utilization of plants (higher productivity due to the reduction in the number of differences) Reduction of the number of platforms as a result of their localization on a worldwide basis The car platform strategy has become important in new product development and in the innovation process. The finished products have to be responsive to market needs and to demonstrate distinctiveness while – at the same time – they must be developed and produced at low cost. Adopting such a strategy affects the development process and also has an important impact on an automaker's organizational structure. A