Departmentalization, Organizational Authority and Job Design: Dakkota Integrated Systems

Organizational structure, along with the different elements it encompasses, is a significant factor in the overall design of any business. Establishing a clear picture of what a department’s responsibilities are, classifying job roles and functions, and defining where people fit into the chain of command, can make everyday tasks and decisions easier for both employees and managers alike. In addition, astute planning and organization can also have a large impact on a company’s bottom line, with an effectively organized company saving money by reducing redundancies and improving processes and work flow. By outlining and analyzing the general organizational structure that is present at the Dakkota Integrated Systems Windsor Plant, one can identify both its strengths and weaknesses.
Departmentalization is a method of subdividing work and workers into separate organizational units that take responsibility for completing particular tasks. Dakkota Integrated Systems is structured using functional departmentalization. There are seven main departments with six distinct organizational groups. The Engineering, Quality, Materials, Operations, HR and Accounting departments stand on their own, while the IT group is nested within the Accounting department and reports to its manager. This current structuring has worked well for Dakkota in the last seven years of operations, due to a couple of main benefits. Each department has been able to focus and develop its employee’s skillset to a high level of competency. This allows a wide range of projects and complex problems to be handled by a relatively small number of employees within the department. Furthering that advantage, is that the skill level of each individual employee within a depart...

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... The vast majority of positions on the plant floor are considered specialized jobs. Job specialization is used widely in an effort to reduce costs in both training and turnover, and to increase efficiency. A great amount of care is used in designing the processes, and responsibilities in each role to increase the benefits mentioned above. In addition, considerable emphasis is placed on job rotation, as a way to provide variety, cross training, and health benefits to operators on the line. Job enlargement is also used quite often, in order to balance out workloads along the line and will sometimes provide workers with more job satisfaction depending on the task that is added. On the other hand, job enrichment is implemented in relatively few positions, with the exception of team leads. They are given more authority to decide the best way to complete certain tasks.