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

Abstract

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 positioning. They were found to form part of the manufacturing decision-making process, but were not part of the strategic business decision-making process.

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