Anything that is indistinctly classified is like an incoherent article that is defeated by its own confused logic before it has time to express its own views. This sort of thing happens all the time in China’s industrial software world.

In many research reports and articles related to industrial software literature, slot spots full of industrial software classification, like scars of reports and literature, is not beautiful, but also dull. But the world has been suffering for a long time, deep-rooted, unable to start, so can only choose “a leaf can not see Mount Tai.”

Today we will talk about, clean and flawless industrial software classification in the end what?

Original industrial software classification

Two or three slot points

Industrial software has a conventional classification method, divided into R & D design, manufacturing, operation and maintenance, management and other four categories, obviously hope to cover the business (R & D, production and operation) and management two dimensions.

But convention is not the same as a formula theorem. The current classification of industrial software has flaws, but most people choose to “ignore” because of “no solution”.

For example, Product Data Management (PDM) in the R&D design category, which used to play a role primarily in the R&D phase, is now clearly playing a role across the cycle to the later production phase.

Another example is product life cycle management (PLM), which has long been rid of the shackles of the research and development stage and participates in the full-cycle process of production, manufacturing, operation and maintenance of products.

The business dimension contains three phases, but sales and supply are not included in the business dimension, but are placed in the operations management category. In this way, not only the business is incomplete, but the management dimension is also unclear. Operation management should involve the whole process of the business, while sales and supply are only one stage of the business.

The business management category also has other problems of classification confusion, such as putting internal management such as human resources and financial management together with external management such as project management and quality management, which invisibly increases the complexity. Not to mention demand management, procurement management, knowledge management, cost management and so on.

So, what does an industrial software classification without “slot points” look like?

New spectrum of industrial software classification

Independent of each other, completely exhaustive

In accordance with McKinsey’s “Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive” principle of MECE (Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive), we propose to classify companies according to the characteristics of their operating activities. Any enterprise, its operation has three lines: main business, business management and business resources. Among them:

The main business includes demand, research and development, production, marketing, supply and operation and maintenance. Demonstrate the company’s core business and mission, embrace demand, conduct business, and export value;
Business management includes data, demand, quality, project, market and other management areas that run through the whole life cycle of the business stage. It is a means for enterprises to improve efficiency, reduce costs, achieve goals, and a weapon to expand enterprises.
Business resources, including knowledge, equipment, procurement, manpower, cost, finance and other resources that support the main business and run through the whole life cycle, are the guarantee of the business ability of the enterprise, but also the direct presentation of competitiveness and advantages, and the cornerstone of a stronger enterprise.
Ideally, each stage, domain, and resource of these three dimensions would have a corresponding industrial software support.