A general model for the design of data warehouses

Design and implementation of data warehouses remain delicate tasks which are led by experts. Nevertheless it would be interesting to allow the users to define and to build themselves their system through a simple and flexible process. In particular, in the field of production systems, exists the need to integrate data from various sources and to analyze them in order to extract knowledge for optimizing these systems. Traditionally the design of a data warehouse is based on an adequate representation of facts on one hand and dimensions of analysis on the other hand. We show in this article that an unified representation can be envisaged and that the problem comes down to that of the choice of a hierarchy of criteria adapted to the necessities of analysis. Our proposition leans on a graphic representation which offers a visual help to the user.