Structure Analysis Of Idlenot Dairy example essay topic

Structure Analysis of Idlenot Dairy. Introduction Idlenot Dairy was located in Springfield VT. The company that had been in business for about 5 years. The Dairy received unprocessed milk from the local farmers and produced a variety of products. These included different types of milk, yogurt and cream. The plant also bottled an assortment of juices and water.

II. Departmentalization The Functional Structure would best describe the form of Departmentalization used by Idlenot. Various departments employed people with particular training. The IT trained personnel worked in the Data Processing Department. People with Financial backgrounds were located in the Accounting Department.

The exception to this was in the Shipping and Warehouse operations. The employees that were responsible for moving stock from one location to another did not require specialized training.. Methods of Coordination. WharehouseManagers at the Dairy used different methods of coordination for specific activities. The Warehouse Manager used coordination through standardization. Procedures that were used for the stocking of items in the coolers became routine.

The Team Leader would assign Stock Men to a machine. The machines produced and packaged the products and sent them down the track in milk crates stacked six high. An employee would pull them from the track and place them in the appropriate cooler. He continued this as long as the machine he monitored produced a product. To perform the same steps day after day did not require a significant amount of thought. B. Shipping The Shipping Manager's activities required a different approach. He used coordination through formal hierarchy.

The Shipping Manager assigned the Team Leader tasks that required more supervision and resources. He gave an order to the Team Leader who divided it among his Pullers. The Pullers would enter the tunnel, assemble the order from the various coolers and send it down the track to the awaiting loaders. The Loaders would remove their assigned color-coded stacks and put them in the appropriate trucks for delivery.

This process did not require special training but it did require more direction from the Supervisors than the warehouse functions. IV. Elements of the Organization Idlenot Dairy was a small organization. Its span of control was limited.

In the shipping and warehousing divisions the managers and team leaders had no more than six employees under their supervision at any one time. The other departments had slightly higher ratios. Most of the supervisors directed the employees, they did not oversee them. The decision-making at Idlenot rested with the President, Vice President and Department Managers. There was very little, if any decentralization. The team leaders had the orders to follow and were not allowed much room for autonomy.

This was tied closely to the degree of formalization that was directed by the President and Department Heads. The Team leaders and workers on the floor had specific ways of handling the product. All the crates were stocked the same way, all the orders were pulled and arranged the same way. The same procedures were followed by every employee during every shift. With Idlenot's limited span of control, high level of centralization and formalization it meets the textbook definition of a mechanistic structure. V. Analysis A. Organizational Structure The Functional Structure that Idlenot employed was appropriate for the organization at the time. Having specializations in each area allowed for experts on the floor to be groomed as supervisors.

When these employees moved up the ranks they brought with them the accumulated knowledge of the working group. As theses supervisors grew to become the area Managers the amount of direct supervision continued to grow with them. This style of management worked for a while, until the different functional areas began to compete with one another. The goals of the Company were lost among the goals of the specific groups. The Functional Structure was appropriate for the size of the company also. Having the decision-making authority resting with the managers was feasible while the number of subordinates was small.

As the company started to expand though the higher placed personnel did not have the time to devote to deck plate level decisions. By examining the technology that was employed by Idlenot, the Functional Structure is again a logical choice. With a low variety of tasks and the procedures to handle any exceptions in place the employees were armed with the requisite tools to accomplish the jobs at hand. The environment of the organization will also lead the organization toward a specific structure. In this case the company's environment would be describes as stable, simple and integrated.

The stability came from the company's suppliers. The same farmers had been delivering milk to the dairy since its opening. There was no likelihood of change in the immediate future. The number of inputs to the diary was small and far from complex. As far as being integrated with the environment, the dairy had a limited number of customers in the local area and a short list of products. B. Component Congruence The two organizational inputs that showed a low degree of congruence were the individual and the organization.

The individual's needs were not met by the organization. The deck-plate level workers had no sense of accomplishment. The warehouse staff saw no results from their efforts. They knew the product went into the cooler and that was the last time they saw it. The shipping team pulled the orders and sent them down the track. They never experienced any finality in their actions.

The individuals only interaction with the organization was with the one level of supervisor above them. The structure of the company was as clear as mud to them. The only convergence of the individual's goals and the company's goals was to get the product to the customer. When they left the plant for the day, they were the customer. Looking back at all the factors involved in the organization, I now understand why they went bankrupt and closed the doors in 1993.