Incorporating trust in networked production systems

This paper presents a decision-making pattern that uses trust mechanisms. It comprises an expectation module that performs two functions. First, it infers??based on past performance??how information is to be understood (e.g. consider the expected outcome of a promise to deliver tomorrow, morgen, ma?ana or domani). Second, it infers??based on past performance??the uncertainty on the expected behavior. This pattern makes a key contribution by enabling cooperation in large systems of systems without requiring conventional integration, which typically results in rigidity and monolithic system designs. It contributes to the development of holonic systems or nearly decomposable systems that deliver most of the advantages of integration without the disadvantages.