Stuart Orr

The role of quality management in manufacturing strategy: Experiences from the Australian wine industry

There has been little empirical research that examines the position and role of quality management in strategic manufacturing decision-making. The Australian wine industry was chosen for this research because it has a major focus on quality in process and product. The research found that quality assurance and control rank as the second most important area of manufacturing process decision-making, after plant and equipment. It also found that quality is the most important competitive priority for wine producers, followed by product cost. Quality, plant and equipment and product cost were found to be strongly related and together formed the basis for domestic and international competition in this industry. An ANOVA was used to determine that there were no significant differences in the importance of quality for different organizational characteristics (p< 0.05) and a factor analysis determined that quality control and assurance are related to production planning and control in terms of their strategic posit...

The Role of Capacity Management in Manufacturing Strategy: Experiences from the Australian Wine Industry

There has been little research focused on identifying the position and role of capacity management in strategic manufacturing decision making. This research presents the findings of a major investigation into strategic capacity management in the Australian wine industry. The research found that advanced processing technology is being used as part of a strategy for increasing capacity in this industry. It was also found that supply dependability and product cost/price were the most important competitive priorities for wine production, after product quality. All three of these were found to be directly influenced by the level of capacity management. The importance of capacity management varied, depending on the category of wine producer (32 different categories were identified). It was also determined that the strategic position of capacity management in the manufacturing decision making process is linked to production planning and control, quality control and assurance and plant and equipment.

The impact of information technology on a section of the Australian health care industry

This paper presents the results of a survey of senior and middle managers from the Southern Health Care Network in Victoria, Australia. The survey was conducted to determine whether IT is used as a strategic tool to meet competitive issues within the health care industry. A detailed interview was also conducted with the senior manager of information systems for the Southern Health Care Network. The research sought to identify the strategic IT issues facing the health care sector, whether IT was currently used as a source of competitive advantage within the network or by competitors, key factors for successful IT implementation and any impediments to taking full advantage of IT. The research identified a lack of understanding of IT options and potential benefits in this industry. It also determined that there was little or no awareness of the competitive advantage that could be achieved through IT. The role of IT within the network was found to be constrained at the level of providing a supporting infrastructure for users rather than one of being pivotal for organisational strategic advantage.

Technology and global manufacturing: some German experiences

Based on interviews conducted with senior managers of four German multinationals, discusses issues of technology management in the context of global manufacturing. An overview of the four companies and their competitive priorities is first presented. Then discusses the role of globalisation and issues relating to technology transfer and technology management. Based on observations, identifies three common strategies/practices adopted by the companies studied, namely maintaining focus on core competencies/technological capabilities; maintaining a continuing dialogue between the RD and providing extensive education and training for all employees.

Automation in the workplace: An Australasian perspective

Abstract Automation is adopted to achieve greater production throughput, high levels of productivity and greater value adding. The rationale behind the implementation of automation in industry is now being more closely investigated. The philosophy that all types of automation will benefit the organization is now being seriously contested in the literature. The researchers found that best practice companies are finding new ways of automating processes and consequently gaining a long-term strategic advantage. The best practice companies included in this project considered automation to be a central element of strategic and operations planning, people management and facility design. Many of these organizations used lean production techniques to improve the implementation and operation of automated manufacturing systems. These companies placed emphasis on the automation of the process rather than on automating existing processes. The best practice organizations achieved this by involving people at the basic design and planning stages and using logical processes to identify the most suitable processes for automation. Companies wishing to gain a competitive advantage from automation should adopt comprehensive worker involvement programmes, introduce the automation of processes slowly and incrementally, whilst increasing the flow of ideas across work boundaries. Planning for automation in an organization must start at the strategic planning stage and then incorporate all phases of the management process including planning, leading, resource allocation and control systems.

The Organisational Determinants of Success for Delivering Fee-Paying Graduate Courses.

The literature identified fee‐paying education as one of the fastest growth industries in the world – it is a global industry from which many industrialised countries, such as Australia, are well positioned to benefit. At this stage, little conclusive evidence exists that identifies how such enterprises should operate, although many universities around the globe have already made a considerable investment in fee‐paying graduate education and rely heavily on the income it generates. The literature suggests that few, if any, excel in the best practices associated with this type of education. The research also identified a set of best practices that apply specifically to fee‐paying graduate education that can be grouped in a number of categories.

Technology and process management in the Australian wine industry

States that manufacturing competence in organizations is determined by the competitive priorities of those organizations and the key operating decisions which they make to achieve those competitive priorities. 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. Finds 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.

E-Commerce and Graduate Education: Is Educational Quality Taking a Nose Dive?.

Purpose – Online education has been growing rapidly, but has not had the benefit of the extensive teaching pedagogy development of traditional face‐to‐face teaching. This paper aims to provide a review of the current literature and present the results of a survey, conducted to determine the effectiveness of a graduate online subject.Design/methodology/approach – The literature was reviewed to identify measures of success and quality in online education delivery. These measures were then considered in relation to their application in practice via a case study based around a survey conducted at Deakin University in Australia.Findings – A total of 16 relevant measures of teaching quality were identified in the literature. Most measures had elements of bias and some were more generally applicable to online learning. The case study suggested that the value of computer mediated learning in an online environment was limited and that a combination of print and computer mediated conferencing performed better in mo...

The role of technology in manufacturing strategy: experiences from the Australian wine industry

Recent research has focused on identifying the role of technology in strategic manufacturing decision making in a particular industry, in this case the Australian wine industry. This industry was chosen because it has a major focus on the use of advanced process technology as part of its manufacturing competitive positioning. In particular, technology is used to maximise product quality and reduce production costs. Technology was identified as the most important area of manufacturing process decision making, followed by quality assurance and control. It was also found that quality is the most important competitive priority for wine producers, followed by product cost. Both of these were found to be directly influenced by process technology. The competitive priority of rate of innovation, although also likely to be influenced by technology, was found to be much less important. Integration of technology with the process was also identified as being a much less important decision area. An ANOVA determined that there were 32 categories of wine producers for which there were significant differences in the importance of technology.

A comparison of AMT strategies in the USA, South Africa and Germany

This paper presents a comparison of the findings of three surveys of AMT adoption, independently carried out in the USA, South Africa and Germany. It was found that in both South Africa and Germany the greatest number of respondents claimed that their ideas for AMT implementations came from the Production Department, whilst the greatest number of US respondents identified the Engineering Department. The US respondents involved greater numbers of levels of management and functional areas in the planning process and utilised more financial evaluation techniques in assessment. At the time, the USA was rated as the most competitive industrialised nation and the best performing industrialised nation with regard to technology management.