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Manufacturing companies must invest in new technologies and processes to succeed in a rapidly changing global environment. Managers have the difficulty of justifying capital investment in adopting new, state-of-the-art technology. Technology investment accounts for a large part of capital spending and is a key form of improving competitive advantage. Typical approaches focus on the expected return of investment and financial reward gained from the implementation of such equipment. With an increasingly dynamic market environment and global economic model, forecasting of financial payback can be argued to become increasingly less accurate. Subsequently, less quantifiable factors are becoming increasingly important. For example, the alignment of a technology with an organisations objective to fulfil future potential and gain competitive advantage is becoming as crucial as economic evaluation. In addition, the impact on human operators and skill level required must be considered. This research was motivated by the lack of decision methodologies that understand why a technology is more successful within an environment rather than re-examining the underlying performance attributes of a technology. The aim is to create a common approach where both experts and non-experts can use historical decision information to support the evaluation and selection of an optimal manufacturing technology. This form of approach is based on the logic in which a decision maker would irrationally recall previous decisions to identify relationships with new problem cases. The work investigates data mining and machine learning techniques to discover the underlying influences to improve technology selection under a set of dynamic factors. The approach initially discovers the practices to which an expert would conduct the selection of a manufacturing technology within industry. A defined understanding of the problem and techniques was subsequently concluded. This led to an understanding of the str

Manufacturing companies must invest in new technologies and processes to succeed in a rapidly changing global environment. Managers have the difficulty of justifying capital investment in adopting new, state-of-the-art technology. Technology investment accounts for a large part of capital spending and is a key form of improving competitive advantage. Typical approaches focus on the expected return of investment and financial reward gained from the implementation of such equipment. With an increasingly dynamic market environment and global economic model, forecasting of financial payback can be argued to become increasingly less accurate. Subsequently, less quantifiable factors are becoming increasingly important. For example, the alignment of a technology with an organisations objective to fulfil future potential and gain competitive advantage is becoming as crucial as economic evaluation. In addition, the impact on human operators and skill level required must be considered. This research was motivated by the lack of decision methodologies that understand why a technology is more successful within an environment rather than re-examining the underlying performance attributes of a technology. The aim is to create a common approach where both experts and non-experts can use historical decision information to support the evaluation and selection of an optimal manufacturing technology. This form of approach is based on the logic in which a decision maker would irrationally recall previous decisions to identify relationships with new problem cases. The work investigates data mining and machine learning techniques to discover the underlying influences to improve technology selection under a set of dynamic factors. The approach initially discovers the practices to which an expert would conduct the selection of a manufacturing technology within industry. A defined understanding of the problem and techniques was subsequently concluded. This led to an understanding of the str

Manufacturing companies must invest in new technologies and processes to succeed in a rapidly changing global environment. Managers have the difficulty of justifying capital investment in adopting new, state-of-the-art technology. Technology investment accounts for a large part of capital spending and is a key form of improving competitive advantage. Typical approaches focus on the expected return of investment and financial reward gained from the implementation of such equipment. With an increasingly dynamic market environment and global economic model, forecasting of financial payback can be argued to become increasingly less accurate. Subsequently, less quantifiable factors are becoming increasingly important. For example, the alignment of a technology with an organisations objective to fulfil future potential and gain competitive advantage is becoming as crucial as economic evaluation. In addition, the impact on human operators and skill level required must be considered. This research was motivated by the lack of decision methodologies that understand why a technology is more successful within an environment rather than re-examining the underlying performance attributes of a technology. The aim is to create a common approach where both experts and non-experts can use historical decision information to support the evaluation and selection of an optimal manufacturing technology. This form of approach is based on the logic in which a decision maker would irrationally recall previous decisions to identify relationships with new problem cases. The work investigates data mining and machine learning techniques to discover the underlying influences to improve technology selection under a set of dynamic factors. The approach initially discovers the practices to which an expert would conduct the selection of a manufacturing technology within industry. A defined understanding of the problem and techniques was subsequently concluded. This led to an understanding of the str

Manufacturing companies must invest in new technologies and processes to succeed in a rapidly changing global environment. Managers have the difficulty of justifying capital investment in adopting new, state-of-the-art technology. Technology investment accounts for a large part of capital spending and is a key form of improving competitive advantage. Typical approaches focus on the expected return of investment and financial reward gained from the implementation of such equipment. With an increasingly dynamic market environment and global economic model, forecasting of financial payback can be argued to become increasingly less accurate. Subsequently, less quantifiable factors are becoming increasingly important. For example, the alignment of a technology with an organisations objective to fulfil future potential and gain competitive advantage is becoming as crucial as economic evaluation. In addition, the impact on human operators and skill level required must be considered. This research was motivated by the lack of decision methodologies that understand why a technology is more successful within an environment rather than re-examining the underlying performance attributes of a technology. The aim is to create a common approach where both experts and non-experts can use historical decision information to support the evaluation and selection of an optimal manufacturing technology. This form of approach is based on the logic in which a decision maker would irrationally recall previous decisions to identify relationships with new problem cases. The work investigates data mining and machine learning techniques to discover the underlying influences to improve technology selection under a set of dynamic factors. The approach initially discovers the practices to which an expert would conduct the selection of a manufacturing technology within industry. A defined understanding of the problem and techniques was subsequently concluded. This led to an understanding of the str

Manufacturing companies must invest in new technologies and processes to succeed in a rapidly changing global environment. Managers have the difficulty of justifying capital investment in adopting new, state-of-the-art technology. Technology investment accounts for a large part of capital spending and is a key form of improving competitive advantage. Typical approaches focus on the expected return of investment and financial reward gained from the implementation of such equipment. With an increasingly dynamic market environment and global economic model, forecasting of financial payback can be argued to become increasingly less accurate. Subsequently, less quantifiable factors are becoming increasingly important. For example, the alignment of a technology with an organisations objective to fulfil future potential and gain competitive advantage is becoming as crucial as economic evaluation. In addition, the impact on human operators and skill level required must be considered. This research was motivated by the lack of decision methodologies that understand why a technology is more successful within an environment rather than re-examining the underlying performance attributes of a technology. The aim is to create a common approach where both experts and non-experts can use historical decision information to support the evaluation and selection of an optimal manufacturing technology. This form of approach is based on the logic in which a decision maker would irrationally recall previous decisions to identify relationships with new problem cases. The work investigates data mining and machine learning techniques to discover the underlying influences to improve technology selection under a set of dynamic factors. The approach initially discovers the practices to which an expert would conduct the selection of a manufacturing technology within industry. A defined understanding of the problem and techniques was subsequently concluded. This led to an understanding of the str