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The paper is organized as follows: in the second
section of this article we describe the SIEC system
(its components, modules and the diversity of its
databases) and how its use can be adapted to specific
domains and business opportunities. In the third
section, we describe all tools developed by our team,
which will be used to collect data (supplier
information, selection of materials, addition of some
specific modules). We present their relationships
with the SIEC system. In section four we describe
the architecture model that will be implemented to
achieve the interoperability between SIEC and
various tools. Finally, we conclude and present some
future works.
2 SIEC AND EXTERNAL DATA
SOURCES
Companies have to achieve integration of new
software quickly and as cheaply as possible, but still
need to preserve software architecture and insure
robust solutions that are easily maintainable over
time. Today's business scenario challenges include
the development of closer business partnerships,
improvements in supply chain, customer support
services and streamlining processes to achieve
organizational efficiency.
However, most of the companies still use
existing legacy applications, developed using
different architectures and technologies that have
usually not been designed for integration.
Companies cannot afford to replace them quickly,
because they are mission critical; also they cannot
afford to develop their entire information systems
from scratch in today's business environment.
Data-level integration is often the starting point
where a company begins to work on integration.
ETL process and ESB are two data integration
solution to achieve this aim (K. Khalifa and C.
Ahmed, 2012, P. Harneve, 2006). The purpose of
these studies is to search for the solution from
existing approaches to determine which one is most
suitable for the web application.
Integration architecture is usually built from
several layers. The most important types of
integration are:
Data-level integration
Application integration
Business process integration
SIEC centralizes in one collaborative platform all
the data needed to design a product (performance,
environmental quality, costs) and its Life Cycle
Analysis. SIEC contains and can use simultaneously
different types of databases for various purposes:
Classic LCA databases (Eco-Invent, Buwal,
ELCD, NREL ...) to generate outputs similar to
those of traditional LCA software.
Other statistical environmental databases ( Air
Chief, Bilan Carbone ®, CORINAIR ...) to
facilitate interpretation of results for non-expert
users in environmental assessment.
Environmental/non-environmental databases
(statistical data related to the chemical
composition of materials, their collection rate,
their lower calorific value LCV, their recycled
content...) to shed more light and meet
regulatory requirements.
User database containing information on the
function of the studied specimens, material
properties...
The SIEC team works continuously on various
external data sources to expand the interoperability
of SIEC. Currently targeted sources are the outputs
of the various Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools,
Excel files, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
systems (figure 1). Also, SIEC integrates a new data
model called the PIVOT System. It is a device that
allows SIEC to integrate environmental issues that
are specific to each project, regardless of the
industry, including ensuring the correspondence
between:
LCA databases
Physico-chemical properties
Other environmental data
Data from other software tools (CAD, Excel,
ERP ....)
Designer database
Figure 1: Siec database and external data source.
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