Model-based diagnosis is regarded by many as a way to overcome the limitations of first-generation knowledge-based systems which perform fault classification by means of empirical symptom-failure associations. Many different approaches to model-based diagnosis exist. The ESPRIT ARTIST project, focusing on the development of model-based techniques for diagnosis of industrial systems, has tried to integrate these approaches within a common generic architecture so that a given application system could be generated by composing a particular diagnostic system from a set of predeveloped and hence reusable modules. There is an overview of the main results of the ARTIST project, its generic architecture and the three diagnostic systems developed and tested within the project. An industrial application to management of electrical transmission networks is presented.