METHODOLOGIES FOR DESIGNING CIM SYSTEMS - A SURVEY

It is a well known fact in the industrial world today, that CIM system s cannot be bought. They must be designed by the user, who will choose and integrate the various components. The selection of these will be influenced by such factors as their availability on the market, the hu man aspects, difficulty in capturing the knowledge and complexity of t he task. The design phase must be guided by a methodology which makes possible the defining of the possible solutions.We try in this paper t o define what could be a methodology, bringing together concepts such as reference model, modelling formalism and the structured approach. W e illustrate these concepts through various research efforts undertake n during the last decade.