Global vision and performance indicators for an industrial improvement approach

This article organizes reflections around the notion of industrial performa nce. If the latter has always justified all the actions carried out in an e nterprise, these actions have evolved with the evolution of the context. Fr om a brief review of the characteristics of this context where information technology plays an expanding role, two concepts inherent to today's perfor mance are deduced and then analyzed: the need to consider the enterprise th rough a global vision on the one hand, and the importance of a continuous i mprovement approach of the performance of the whole or parts of the enterpr ise on the other hand. Then, the study will focus more particularly on the performance indicator as a fundamental tool in an improvement approach. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.