ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on part of the results of an extensive empirical investigation which was carried out on the subject of changing rationalization strategies in the furniture industry, the machine tool industry and the foundry industry. It examines some of the aspects of this complex relationship in closer detail. The thesis posits that if particular manufacturing technologies are to be successful, their development, production and supply have to be oriented to enterprise applications. These applications are largely determined, in turn, by the measures pursued by the user companies for the design of their own products and processes. The manufacturers of technology adapt their products to these various systemic rationalization strategies by basing their own product and sales strategies on the intentions of the user companies, which leads to a growing supply of technologies which incorporate an increasingly systemic character.
