Manufacturing Style for Software Development

We can classify almost all items/products (physical as well as non-physical) in few groups on the basis of how they are manufactured. I have tried listing these manufacturing styles.

1.  Job/Craft Manufacturing: In this manufacturing style one or more persons collaborate very closely from designing till its complete manufacturing.  The each product resulting out of this style is unique because of high level of human interaction during manufacturing. This style of manufacturing is suitable for very low volume of production. Level of automation in this style is not very high. Few examples - Handmade basket by artesian, prototype of a car, etc.
2. Assembly Line – Type 1 Manufacturing:  In this style of manufacturing, item under manufacturing travels from one assembly station to next. Each assembly station is specialized in terms of tasks, tools and human intervention. In this style designers of product and workers are disconnected. This style is suitable for mass production.  Car assembly is famous example of this style.
3. Assembly Line – Type 2 Manufacturing: In this style of manufacturing, items under manufacturing remain stationary because of massive size but assembly station moves with tools and personnel. In this style designers and workers are disconnected. This style is suitable for mass production.  Jumbo Jet assembly is prime example of this style.
4. Projectized Manufacturing: In this style, product is manufactured/assembles at the place where it will remain for its life. This style of manufacturing is used for ultra-massive products. Each product due to manufacturing is unique. Level of disconnection among designers and workers is high. This style is not for mass production. For example - a house, a dam.
5. Material
   Processing: In this style of manufacturing (processing), tools are chemical and chemical reactions. Interestingly, raw materials are also chemicals. This style is suitable for mass manufacturing. Designers of processing and works are disconnected. For example – Fertilizer manufacturing, minerals processing for metals, etc.
6. Information Processing:  In this style, instead of material, information is processed.  Here mode of transfer of information from one work station to another is paper or electronic format. Since information is formless, so geo location of work station becomes irrelevant. In this style process designers and workers are disconnected.  This style is suitable for mass production/processing. Human intervention in the process is high.

In reality, most of the products do not follow single style of manufacturing but combination.  But for any product, one style remains dominant.

Let us try to rate various manufacturing style on characteristics of styles:

Characteristics	Job/Craft	Assembly Line - Type 1	Assembly Line - Type 2	Projectized	Material Processing	Information Processing
Level of dis-connection among designers & workers	V. Low	V. High	V. High	Low	V. High	V. High
Level of Mass production	V. Low	V. High	V. High	V. Low	V. High	V. High
Transportation ease of semi-finished product	Neutral	High	V. Low	V. Low	V. Low	V. High
Level of human intervention during manufacturing	V. High	V. Low	V. Low	High	V. Low	V. Low
Uniqueness of finished product	V. High	V. Low	V. Low	V. High	V. Low	V. Low
Dependency upon Individuals	V. High	V. Low	V. Low	V. Low	V. Low	V. Low
Movement of people around product	V. High	V. Low	V. Low	V. High	V. Low	V. Low

Now try to understand where software product fits into. Before that let us understand position of software manufacturing with respect to characteristics of manufacturing style.

Characteristics	Software Development
Level of dis-connection among designers & workers	Low
Level of Mass production	V. Low
Transportation ease of semi-finished product	V. High
Level of human intervention during manufacturing	V. High
Uniqueness of finished product	V. High
Dependency upon Individuals	V. High
Movement of people around product	V. Low

 

Let us assign some numbers to level of characteristics:

V. Low: -2

Low: -1

Neutral: 0

High: 1

V. High: 2

Combining above tables and representing levels in numerical form:

Characteristics	Job/Craft	Assembly Line -Type 1	Assembly Line -Type 2	Projectized	Material Processing	Information Processing	Software Development
Level of dis-connection among designers & workers	-2	2	2	-1	2	2	-1
Level of Mass production	-2	2	2	-2	2	2	-2
Transportation ease of semi-finished product	0	1	-2	-2	-2	2	2
Level of human intervention during manufacturing	2	-2	-2	1	-2	-2	2
Uniqueness of finished product	2	-2	-2	2	-2	-2	2
Dependency upon Individuals	2	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2	2
Movement of people around product	2	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2

Now the distance between particular style and software development:

Characteristics	Job/Craft	Assembly Line -Type 1	Assembly Line -Type 2	Projectized	Material Processing	Information Processing	Software Development
Level of dis-connection among designers & workers	1	-3	-3	0	-3	-3	0
Level of Mass production	0	-4	-4	0	-4	-4	0
Transportation ease of semi-finished product	2	1	4	4	4	0	0
Level of human intervention during manufacturing	0	4	4	1	4	4	0
Uniqueness of finished product	0	4	4	0	4	4	0
Dependency upon Individuals	0	4	4	4	4	4	0
Movement of people around product	-4	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	7	20	23	9	23	19	0

 

The numerical analysis clearly shows that software development is still nearly a craft (fortunately not witch craft). With increased automation, it will move to projectized style.