Technology and Process Management in the Australian Wine Industry

Manufacturing Competence in organisations is determined by the Competitive Priorities of those organisations and the Key Operating Decisions which those organisations make to achieve those competitive priorities. This paper sets out to investigate whether manufacturing strategy can be applied to an industry which is not traditionally thought of as manufacturing by determining the industry's Competitive Priorities and Key Decision Areas and the relationship between them. It was found that there was a set of Competitive Priorities and Key Decision Areas which apply to the Australian wine industry, and that the most important Key Decision Areas (plant capacity, quality assurance, plant and equipment, production planning and control, product design and top management involvement) were similar to those which apply to many other manufacturing industries.