Optimization of the structural and procedural organization of a Californian company
- Degree programme: Dipl. Techniker/in HF Holztechnik
- Author: Andy Peter
- Thesis advisor: Jean-François Thalmann
- Year: 2023
The company ''Swisswoodworking Inc.'' has doubled in size during the past few years. More and more people have been hired and the structure has been constantly changing. As a result of this evolution, new challenges and issues have emerged, mainly concerning its organization.
Introduction
Swisswoodworking Inc. Is a millwork company based in Gardena, California, USA. The firm is specialized in the manufacture and installation of kitchens, various fittings and wall and ceiling coverings. The scope of work is high end cabinetry for residential area.
Goal of the diploma work
Since the beginning of the interniship, several malfunctions have been observed in the company. The aim of this work is to document these dysfunctions in order to make them clear to the management, to classify them hierarchically in order to find a suitable solution to these problems and propose an action plan fot their implementation.
Analysis of the company
The analysis of the company is made up of 2 parts:
- The analysis of the organization through an organization chart and a function diagram
- The analysis of recent projects process by an internal study and a flow chart
The analysis revealed that the company's problems and main time losses were due to the fact that many employees and responsibilities were directly assigned to the boss. Another time-wasting problem was the lack of storage space, which prevented workers from working efficiently with large items. There was also a lack of efficiency in the project execution procedure, mainly in the way materials were ordered, received and managed.
Controlling
It was decided to explain the importance of controlling to the company's management. Indeed, if a more thorough controlling of the projects had been carried out and the source of the problems had been defined sooner, many of these issues could have been solved without this work.
Conclusion
Several measures have been defined in order to allow a more efficient operation of the company. The main ones are :
- To fill a new position of project manager
- To fill a new position of shop manager
- To expand the storage space
- To define a clear process for material
In order to allow the management to establish a clearer structure, the roles of each person were defined with position descriptions and their involvement in each step of a project was described in a function diagram.
A new, more optimal project flow diagram was also designed, inculding a new process concerning materials.
The benefit resulting from the application of the measures proposed in this work has been estimated at several hundred thousand dollars per year.
