Economic Models - Convex Optimization

Whereas, the main motivations for EM are:
Enterprise Modeling and Integration 125
• better understanding of the structure and functions of the enterprise;
• managing complexity of operations;
• creating enterprise knowledge and know-how for all;
• efficient management of processes;
• enterprise engineering and
• EI itself.
4. Enterprise Integration
Enterprise integration was discussed since the early days of computers
in industry and especially in the manufacturing industry with CIM as the
acronym for operations integration (Vernadat, 1996). In spite of the different
understandings of the scope of integration in CIM, it was always understood
for information integration across or at least parts of the enterprise. Information
integration essentially consists of providing the right information,
to the right people, at the right place, at the right time (Norrie et al., 1995).
Information that is available to the right people, at the right place, at the
right time, and that enables them to act quickly and decisively, is a crucial
requirement of enterprises that intend to grow and remain profitable. The
intelligent delivery of information must obtain maturity levels consistent
with enterprise goals and must employ the appropriate technology to facilitate
this purpose. In today’s enterprise environment, users must consolidate
data and deliver it as useful information and knowledge that empowers the
right business decisions.
With this understanding the different needs in EI can be identified:
(1) Identify the right information to gain knowledge: Elicit knowledge from
gathering information from the intra-enterprise activities and use models
to represent this knowledge regarding product attributes and information,
process management issues, and the decision-making process.
(2) Provide the right information at the right place:The need for implementing
information sharing systems and integration platforms to support
information transaction across heterogeneous environments regarding
hardware, different operating systems, and the legacy systems. This
is a step towards inter-enterprise integration overcoming barriers and
provides connection between enterprise environments by linking their
operations to create extended and virtual enterprises.