Trustworthiness in Industrial System Design
I NTRODUCTION
Trustworthiness in the context of an
industrial system is a relatively new term
intended to provide a better understanding
of the meaning of trust in such a system and
how this trust can be approached by the
operational user as well as the planner and
designer of the system. In general, the
definition of trustworthiness by the
Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) is quite
abstract and academic and of little help for
the operation, planning or design of an
industrial system. For example, the direct
implementation of the five characteristics of
trustworthiness into a concrete system is
difficult or even impossible because these
characteristics interact with each other and
do not permit an isolated implementation of
each.
The
five
characteristics
of
trustworthiness are safety, security, privacy,
reliability and resilience.
The design of such systems is extremely
complex and requires highly specialized
designers and engineers: Even someone
who has skills to harvest crude oil by
designing oil rigs cannot use such skills for
processing the crude oil and operating an oil
refinery. And at first glance, it is difficult to
see what a hospital and a power plant have
in common beyond that both are industrial
systems.
However, these industrial systems share one
important common element, and that is a
deep-rooted trust between the various
stakeholders:
T HE L ANDSCAPE OF I NDUSTRIAL
S YSTEMS
Industrial systems can be very different in
purpose, usage and size. Examples of
industrial systems are:
A refinery which converts specific fossil
resources into specific elements, e.g.
converting crude oil into heating oil and
gasoline
A commercial airplane to transport
passengers from one airport to another
An off-shore oil rig to drill and harvest
crude oil
A power plant to create electricity, based
on natural resources (water, wind, solar)
or by consuming fossil resources (coal,
gas, oil, uranium, etc.)
A hospital to treat the health of sick
patients
An urban transportation system, under
or above ground on rails, to carry
passengers or goods from one location
to another
The owners, investors and operational
users trust that these systems work as
specified, are profitable and flawless
during their expected lifetime.
Neighbors, customers and employees
trust that the systems are safe and do
not threaten their health or pollute the
environment.
The government trusts that laws and
regulations are fulfilled: e.g., patient
privacy standards in a hospital, clean-air
directives in a fossil power plant or
transportation safety in an urban
transportation system.
One challenge is to fulfill this trust during the
design and the operation of the industrial
- 9 -
IIC Journal of Innovation