Common Platforms
Use of a common platform is a common practice for reducing the number of parts and engineering time, and Chrysler, when creating the K platform, was building vehicles from a small number of common platforms (e.g. F/J/M and R). Lee Iacocca claimed that the huge number of parts in inventory and the complexity of building many completely different versions of vehicles was one reason Chrysler was losing money, and directed the engineers to focus on making a large number of common parts where they would not be visible to customers; this was already common practice in Japan and Germany and would help to make the K-cars profitable even at low prices.
Read more about this topic: Chrysler K Platform
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