The impact of SOA on the software industry from the perspective of Supply Chain

In the previous article, we compared the current software development process with the different SOA software development processes from McDonald's two different management methods. From "one-stop operation mode" to "pipeline operation mode", we can adapt to the rapidly changing market, provide more professional and high-quality services, and reduce investment scale and costs, improve productivity in one stage of the industrial chain, and more effectively improve resource utilization. At the same time, it provides a favorable guarantee for the parallel production of the industrial chain and becomes the driving force for the whole industry to move forward.

As an "engine", SOA provides the software industry with the power to transform from a train to a pipeline.

I. "zero inventory"

Here we use some concepts of industry chain management to imagine the software industry revolution brought about by SOA.

The concept of "zero inventory" can be traced back to 1960s. Japanese Toyota Motor Company implemented a brand new production model-JIT production system. Specific management methods include panel management, modular production, and other technologies, in the end, the "zero" backlog of raw materials and semi-finished products is achieved in the production process, and the production efficiency is greatly improved.

JIT refers to the delivery of necessary parts to the production line at the necessary time, in addition, only the required parts, only the required quantity, and only the desired time are delivered to production. This is a logistics system established to adapt to the needs of consumption in 1960s to become diversified and personalized.

The main purpose of JIT production is to ensure that items (parts, semi-finished products and finished products) Flow in order during the production process without the accumulation, shortage and waste of items, therefore, there are several key practices, namely, process-based production, balanced operation, and panel management.

1. Production Process

That is, start from the last process according to the process required for producing the vehicle, determine the category of the previous process, and arrange the production process in sequence, arrange inventory and organize logistics according to the inventory quantity and time required by the process and each link. Minimize the stagnation and handling of materials at the production site, so that the materials can flow freely in the production process.

2. Balanced production

The production volume for one week or one day is averaged by minute/second, and all production processes are organized here, in this way, the standard quota is set for the number of jobs that must be completed per unit time in each operation link of a pipeline, and production is organized according to the standard quota, therefore, we need to balance the supply of materials and arrange the flow of goods according to the production quota. Because the JIT production method is on average by week or by day, there is no concept of batch production in JIT balanced production.

3. Panel Management

That is, the potential problems in the factory or the industrial manifestation that needs to be made or written on a display board presentation board will let anyone know what problems have occurred or what measures should be taken. Panel management needs to be carried out by a series of means, such as the notice board, color lights, color labels, etc. Different presentation methods have different meanings, the following section describes how card management helps reduce inventory to zero:

(1) red bars. Red bars on an item indicate that this item is not required during daily production activities.
(2) panel. It is a dashboard made to make it easy for everyone to see the place where the item is rotated. It indicates the location where the item is located and the inventory quantity.
(3) warning lights. It is a tool that allows the on-site manager to know at any time where exceptions occur during the production process, the operation progress of a link, and where to request parts for supply.
(4) standard job table. It is a table that effectively combines people and machines to determine the working method.
(5) Example of errors. How to display defective products to help workers understand what they mean.
(6) Prevent board errors. Self-Management Board to reduce errors.
(7) red line. Indicates the maximum value mark of goods stacked in warehouses and storage locations. This is an easy way to control the maximum inventory quantity of items.

The process-based production, balanced operation, and panel management correspond to several aspects of software engineering, including process control, time and cost measurable, and quality management. Several major issues in software development have been covered in time progress, investment costs, and service quality.

JIT emphasizes zero inventory, but here it expresses production concurrency and standard industrialization. Standards are the premise of parallelism.

Ii. Cooperative Subcontracting

There are several different forms of zero inventory, one of which is cooperative subcontracting.

Cooperative subcontracting mode: the "sub-con" mode in the United States and the "sub-con" Mode in Japan. It is mainly an industrial structure form of manufacturing enterprises, which can be supplied on time with Flexible Production of a number of enterprises, so that the supply inventory of the main enterprises is zero; at the same time, the centralized sales inventory of the main enterprise makes the sales inventory of some subcontracting services and sales enterprises zero.

In many developed countries, manufacturing enterprises form a pyramid structure with a large primary enterprise and hundreds of small subcontractors. The main enterprise is mainly responsible for the guidance of assembly and product market development, and the subcontracting enterprise's respective subcontracting services, subcontracting parts manufacturing, subcontracting supply and subcontracting sales.

Such subcontracting is also a form of parallel production.

There are already professional testing companies.
Now some outsourcing companies break down the project. Then, we are outsourcing each part of the decomposition to several other companies.
This is the prototype of a software industry chain. The arrival of SOA will promote the rapid development of the software industry chain. In the future, software companies will be divided into several types: specialized integrated companies, small companies that develop components in specialized fields, testing companies, and business modeling and analysis companies.

To sum up, SOA brings the pipeline operation mode to the software industry.
This mode is not only reflected in the improvement of parallelism, but also in parallel, the integration mechanism and standards between various links are very unified, standardized and loosely coupled. Componentization is what we call the concept of components or components. To improve quality, pre-fabricate, test, and batch production, standardized parts can save time, control progress, invest capital, and cost, improving reusability and quickly adapting to changes provide basic guarantees.