Pmhuntsville Plant Project

Huntsville Project Organizational Structure Report

Xxxxx Xxxxxx

Project Management Systems

PM 586

Keller Graduate School of Management

2011

12/1/11

Successful Project Management says, “Although there are various configurations in which people can be organized to work on projects, the most common types of organizational structures are functional, autonomous project, and matrix.” After working on the Huntsville Plant Project for six weeks, I believe that the organizational structure used is functional.

Successful Project Management defines functional organizational structures as being typically used in businesses that primarily sell and produce standard products. In the functional organizational structure, groups consist of individuals who perform the same function, such as engineering or manufacturing, or have the same expertise or skills, such as electronics engineering or testing. Each functional group, or component, concentrates on performing its own activities in support of the company’s business mission. The focus is on the technical excellence and cost competitiveness of the company’s products, as well as the importance of the contribution of each functional component’s expertise to the company’s products.

The Seitz Corporation is in business to produce and sell small plastic containers. The Huntsville Plant Project is not their daily norm; it is an expansion of the company so that it can expand its production base and assume a larger market share to increase profits. The project team is made up, primarily of functional leaders from within the company to lend their functional expertise to the plant project. Their primary focus is technical excellence and cost competitiveness of the company’s products.

There are three main types of organizational structures and they each have advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages of the functional structure are no duplication of...