The development of an integrated decision support system for a textile company: A systems engineering approach

This paper describes the development of an Integrated Decision Support System, IDES, for the Planning and Control of ATMA, a Portuguese Textile Company. The methodology used in the process is an interdisciplinary effort, deeply rooted in Systems Engineering, in which the consideration of the Portuguese industrial context was one of the driving factors leading to its synthesis. The paper presents the overall development process emphasising the methodological framework and the main results achieved. Concepts and techniques from Control Systems, Dynamic Optimization, Software Engineering, Enterprise Modelling and Anthropocentric Systems were used.