ABSTRACT
A large body of work, based on international and Australian studies has increasingly recognised the concept and importance of manufacturing strategy as a means of developing manufacturing capabilities that are integrated with the needs of the business. Much of this work has been biased towards a concept of strategy that is consistent with a planned, or deliberate, strategy. This chapter examines the practices of a large number of Australian and European manufacturing firms in their Continuous Improvement (CI) techniques within a context of strategy as an emergent process rather than a deliberate process. It is not proposed that emergent processes are either preferable or more effective than deliberate strategies, but that both processes are required to facilitate a robust and flexible approach to the problem of manufacturing capability. The place of Continuous Improvement as a key part of the change process of the organisation is explored across a range of competitive priorities of the companies surveyed.
