Modelling the Operations of a Winemaking Enterprise

Abstract

Business owners and managers in the wine industry, from growers to wine producers, make decisions everyday that impact on their business’ performance in the short, medium and long-term. Clearly, appropriate models are required. A data model of the enterprise has been developed with a carefully designed user interface, to provide a comprehensive management system. Using a standard object-oriented design methodology, real and conceptual objects allow winemakers to create and implement a vintage plan. Significant data and parameters associated with winemaking are subjective and a modelling paradigm is well suited to cope with the complex interaction between subjective parameters, virtual conceptual objects, and real-world entities. The model must reflect familiar concepts to winemakers and viticulturalists rather than enforcing convenient forms of such entities familiar to accountants, engineers or software designers. A winemaking enterprise is much more than just a winery, or a vineyard. The model must include all facilities within the scope of the enterprise, even those not directly managed by the user. To achieve a useful and meaningful data model, it is necessary to thoroughly understand the winemaking and grape-growing mentality, and this has been achieved by adopting an ethnographic approach to scoping and inspiring the model’s design. It is also necessary to ruthlessly avoid compromising the design by simplifying or trivialising details presented as a result of such investigation. Although techniques differ greatly between winemakers and grape-growers, there is common ground to base the model without it being cumbersome or convoluted.