Information Technologies in Environmental Engineering

Abstract

How will Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) fare after the present economic crisis? At the moment when economic experts are forecasting domestic growth in France of only 0.6% for this year, and less than 2% for 2011, one of the fundamental aspects to address for the optimisation of the performance of a SME would appear to be its structure. The Supply Chain remains the backbone of Small and Medium Enterprises and its optimisation implies good overall control of the system concerning transport and distribution as well as internal logistics. GRAI Methodology is one of the three main methodologies (with PERA and CIMOSA) used for modelling enterprises. To support this methodology different tools have been developed. A module called GRAIQUAL for implementing, managing and improving quality in SMEs is being developed. It goes without saying that this article will also include the environmental dimension present through the need to reduce the carbon footprint in the Supply Chain. After a short presentation of the concepts of GRAIQUAL and the new performance criterion (the carbon footprint), a detailed case study will be presented to show the concepts of optimisation of Supply Chain performance using GRAI Methodology. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011.