Complex industrial systems are constantly changing and their configuration has to evolve with the rhythm of their environment. It appears relevant to us to elaborate a formal process permitting the specification to prove the properties of these systems in order to better perceive, understand and anticipate these evolutions. With this intention, the characteristic properties of an internal organisation and the behaviour of a system are modeled using conceptual graphs. The formalism of representation offers the possibility to structure the ontology of the modeling field, to construct a body of knowledge of a given system and to provide the formal tools which permit the user to carry out reasoning aiming in particular at anticipating the consequences of the projects and possible actions. Moreover, this approach provides support for modeling and analysis of the ideas emerging for establishing the bond between the observed collective behaviours and the mechanisms of their production from the interactions within the elements of the system.