The company I selected for this assignment in describing organizational structure is the company I work for Ready Pac Foods. In the past 10 years our company has been restructure many times due to changes in the CEO and Presidents role. The organization structure of Ready Pac has change from a functional structure, divisional structure to a matrix structure. These change occurred due to servicing customer on a national scale and opening of new manufacturing plants. In this paper I describe the benefits and setbacks we have faced from these structures changes. I will also compare our design to our competitors and how our changes have allowed us to continue to be competitive in our industry.
Ready Pac Foods will be celebrating their 45th anniversary this year. In the beginning the company organization structure began as a functional structure. This design worked well due to the size of the company. In the website smallbusiness.com explains, “An advantage of a functional organizational structure is that it offers a high level of specialization. Each unit operates as a type of self-contained mini-company, charged with carrying out its specific role. Employees typically start their careers in an entry-level position within the function and develop specialized knowledge as they move up within the hierarchy.” (www.smallbusiness.com). Ready Pac grew from a small produce packing house into the 4th largest produce manufacture in the United States of retail and foodservice of fresh cut goods.
In the launch of Ready Pac Foods the functional structure was a good fit. The company employed less than 100 workers in Pasadena, and the functional structure was broken up in three sections Owner, Operations and Accounting. In 1978, with the opening of our New Jersey plant and the expansion of foodservice and retail produce segments the company employed more than 2,000 workers. During this time the company changed from functional
References: www.smallbusiness.com www.vertex42.com www.expertminds.com www.strategicfuture.com www.zarate-consult.de