Economic Models - Convex Optimization

Enterprise Modeling and Integration 123
In the 1980s and during the early 1990s, when database technology was
applied on a larger scale, the need for better application design and development
methods became evident (Martin, 1982; Sager, 1988). Different
modeling methodologies, like the structured analysis and design technique
(SADT), were developed. A narrow focus on a single department or task
during development often caused operational problems across application
boundaries. The need for making more complete models aroused, integrating
operations across departmental or functional boundaries.
The problem in EM regarding the manufacturing of EI and control was
to ensure timely execution of business processes on the functional entities
of the enterprise (i.e., human and technical agents) to process enterprise
objects. Processes are made of functional operations and functional operations
are executed by functional entities. Objects flowing through the enterprise
can be information entities (data) as well as material objects (parts,
products, tools, etc.) (Rumbaugh, 1993).
In order to design the flexible information and communication
infrastructure needed, different enterprise models are useful, and the model
may in fact become a part of the integrated enterprise itself. The trend
now is away from the first single perspective enterprise models, which was
only focusing on the product data information handling, to more complete
enterprise models covering both informational and human aspects of the
organization (Fox, 1993).
During the 1990s, the question aroused on how to integrate different
departments in an enterprise, and how to connect the enterprise with its
external environment i.e., suppliers and customers, to improve co-operation
and logistics. During the 1990s, conglomerate industries took a more developmental
approach, and the research area of EI emerged. Enterprise modeling
is clearly a pre-requisite for EI as all things to be integrated and
coordinated need to modeled to some extent (Petrie, 1992).
Since 1990, major R&D programs for computer-integrated manufacturing
(CIM) have resulted in the following tools/methods or architectures
for EM:
(1) IDEF modeling tools: These are complementary modeling tools developed
by the integrated computer aided manufacturing (ICAM) project,
introducing IDEF0 for functional modeling, IDEF1 for information
modeling, IDEF2 for simulation modeling, IDEF3 for business process
modeling, IDEF4 for object modeling, and IDEF5 for ontology
modeling. IDEF models are mainly used for requirements definitions.
(2) Generic Artificial Intelligence (GRAI) integrated methodology: It is a
methodology which uses the GRAI grid, GRAI nets, developed by the