A method for operating a service oriented architecture (SOA) based wire harness system, a corresponding system, and a machine readable medium. The method includes storing wire harness data in a wire harness data model in a wire harness data processing system, interactively communicating the wire harness data with an electronic computer aided design (ECAD) system and a mechanical computer aided design (MCAD) system through the SOA interface, and storing the wire harness data in the wire harness data model.