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.