My organization performs modifications to vehicles, and I would like to know how to better structure our assemblies to decrease load times and increase computer performance. At the moment we have a very bottom up approach to assemblies, where the parts are modeled, then placed in assemblies, which are then placed in installation models. These installation models typically contain a model of local vehicle structure which we will be using to attach our parts and assemblies. Finally all installation models are rolled up into a general arrangement model, which contains a full layout of the vehicle. This approach has worked out well enough for us in the past on smaller projects with only a few installations. However, this approach is not ideal on large projects with many (15+) installations, containing thousands of parts (hardware, designed parts, and reference structure), especially when multiple installations reference the same structure (this means the same structure would appear multiple times in the general arrangement assembly).
What I would like to know is if its possible to take a top down approach; where, the complete vehicle structure is found in the highest level (general arrangement) assembly, and each installation (next lower level assembly) can reference its necessary structure? I know skeleton models can work in a similar manner to what I have described above; however, I do not know if its possible for this reference structure to appear in the installation level drawings. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.