THE STRATEGIC NATURE OF STANDARD OBJECTS

Exploiting standard reusable objects to achieve operating efficiencies, product flexibility, and competitive advantage is not a new concept.  Until the early 19th century, products were hand-crafted by skilled artisans.  Each product was individually made and thus parts were not interchangeable or multipurpose.

Then a French gunsmith named Honore Le Blanc proposed making guns from standardized patterns for parts that could be more efficiently manufactured and more easily replaced.

Thomas Jefferson while living in France, realized the potential of the idea, brought it to America, and passed it along to Eli Whitney who is largely credited as the man who introduced the standardized manufacture of interchangeable parts to American industry.

Bicycle, sewing machine, clock, and typewriter manufacturers quickly adopted the technique that became known worldwide as the American System of Manufacture.

By the end of the 19th century, American industry was out-producing every other industrial country including the leading powers of Great Britain and Germany thanks in part to the significant efficiencies and flexibility enabled by standardised interchangeable parts.

This approach has since been adopted by virtually every major industry with notable success in automobile manufacturing and most recently, the software industry with Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD).

The power of standards-based object orientation is now also being applied to the rapidly evolving fields of eLearning, performance support, knowledge management, electronic publishing, and digital asset management.

Source: LON Inc.