Investment decisions in Australian manufacturing

In 1996-7 the author conducted structured interviews with managing directors and production managers of Australian manufacturing companies. The objectives were to ascertain the criteria firms used to make investment decisions in manufacturing technology; how (and how well) they managed the introduction of new technology: whether (after implementation) they had experienced unanticipated effects from new technology and what factors impeded or assisted its implementation. This paper discusses past work, describes the methodology, suggests a way of grouping criteria and gives some preliminary findings. The most important finding is that tangible criteria dominate decision processes but that considerable intangible benefits are usually experienced. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.