Orion Systems

Orion Case Assignment

Submitted By

Kandarp Gupta (2014H149273P)

Kuber Tiwari (2014H149272P)

Prakash R. (2014H149271P)

Executive Summary

ORION Systems (ORION) has 7,000 employees and is a detachment of a large aerospace company. The company was recently awarded a government contract to build high speed light rail trains.  It is essential that ORION delivers a quality product on time to ensure they will continue to win government contracts in the future.  The new government contract, known as Jaguar, will be headed by ORION’s project manager, Mike Rosas.

ORION’s current structure includes assigning projects to team members delegated by the Vice President of Operations.  ORION currently uses the matrix arrangement where team members are either working on a full-time or part-time basis while performing normal job duties. Most of ORION’s work was completed by 12 to 20 design teams consisting of 5 to 15 engineers who were led by a team leader.  ORION is facing some key changes in their structure in preparation for the Jaguar project.

New Master Plan and Organizational Chart

ORION Systems should think about keeping its current matrix organizational structure.  Matrix organizations work well in dealing with governmental contracts, because the government works on a project to project basis. However, ORION is currently operating under a functional matrix system.  Under this system the project manager is limited to just coordinating the efforts of each functional group and lacks the authority to make key decisions.  

ORION Systems should move more towards a balanced matrix system.  This system will feature efficient use of resources which is essential when resources are spread across several projects at one time.  This system will also produce greater flexibility and better information flow.  The greatest advantage of a balanced matrix system is better project integration.

The ultimate goal of every project is to provide a quality product or service to an organization’s customers and this is not the case with the way ORION currently executes its projects.  For this to occur, ORION needs to involve more functional managers in the process. ORION’s project teams will no longer be just involved in design and prototype development.  They will also be involved in the manufacturing process as well.  In this way functional managers who oversee key manufacturing process need to be added to the project team.  The key here is each functional manager should still be held responsible for all aspects of their functional areas and responsible for decisions relating to their specialties.  However, the project manager should still have overall decision making authority in all areas of the project. Engineers would be needed for the successful completion of Jaguar, engineers hired may be full time or part time. Since not all functions would run simultaneously, we recommend adding part time engineers to the team.

There currently is no quality assurance function or department within ORION’s project management process.  ORION which gives very high importance to quality should quickly implement some sort of quality assurance (QA) program to ensure the highest quality product is being delivered

The last change required to the master plan in place at ORION is its pay system.  The project team needs to know they are all working together towards success and that every activity within the project process is just as important as the next.  Currently design engineers are paid higher than other employees, and it appears to other project team members that these engineers run the show.  They feel that they are not being treated equally. A good hard look needs to be accomplished by management to eliminate this issue.

A new chain of command needs to be established by adding additional functional managers.  A clear line of authority needs to be recognized that establishes the project manager as the ultimate decision authority with a project.  The current chart has just one supervisor who falls directly under the project manager.  According to the major assessment of probable problems and the increased demand from the government due to completion the master plan would reflect these changes.  The initial plan of five to seven years would be shortened to three to four. Also, there would be a longer duration of documentation/training program, and building the product line to ensure fewer problems.