Collaborative Networks, Manufacturing, Services and Infrastructures are all moving through a rapid and continual process of redefinition driven by demanding markets, globally competition and rapid technological change. These drivers manifest themselves in terms of more frequent product and service changes, greater customization, relentless improvements in cost, quality and reliability and infrastructure that must be both flexible and readily re-configurable both physically and in terms of their information systems.

The key question to be answered by new scientific approaches and technologies is "how" to aggregate resources, especially next generation intelligent systems, manual work places and information and material flow system found on the enterprise (from the lowest level -real-time supervisory control systems) throughout the shop floor to the upper management levels, into organizational and executive units optimal to overtake the role of autonomous and collaborative management and control units.

Agent-based software systems are becoming a key management and control software technology for smart production management and control systems. A multi-agent based software platform can offer distributed intelligent management and control functions with communication, co-operation and synchronization capabilities, and also provide for the behavior specifications of the smart components of the system. And this offers a convincing answer to the key question addressed above.