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Submitted by bteachman on
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Per the request of senior management at my company I have been requested to create a new new department. This department would be responsible for project management of all new production lines, project management of all line upgrades, helping business unit design lines, and modification of existing lines. All of these responsibilities are currently outsource two multiple vendors with one person doing the project management between consultants, electricians, engineers, line vendors, etc.

Where I am having difficulty with this request is writing up the proposal for the department. No one in management wants to tell me exactly how much they want me to do in-house, what they want the department to be responsible for, and what to include for data in the proposal. The first two problems will make a big difference on how I write the proposal. I was hoping that possibly some one on here may have some ideas. Below are the assumptions I made and ideas I had. I appreciate any input or idea's any one may have.

Ideas / Assumptions
- I will include proposed staffing based on doing all manufacturing engineering and automation programming. Any computer programming will remain under the control of the Information Systems group.
- I will include a yearly budge forecast for the next five years. This budget will include equipment, furniture, employee pay, and predicted training.
- I will include a department time line on all up and coming projects for the next 3 years. This will be based on known projects and assuming we get fully staffed by October.
- I will include a section with a list of the suggestions I have been given by senior management (Example: They want me to have a trainer, etc)
- I will include a detailed list of every project
- A list of all needed software and hardware
- A list of the scope of the department
- A over view on predicted savings to the company (vS. Out sourcing and cost savings of new lines)

esanthony's picture

Brandon,

I just have two thoughts. First, I would write a draft of the narrative portion or introduction to the proposal. The importance of this would be to clearly define the assumptions and have the managers sign off on them before you start collecting data.

Second, I think you have covered most fo the data you need to collect in your assumptions you listed. If this new department is being created to save $ vs. outsourcing then you need to show that. I would include the following:
- Last years actual expenses for the functions that this new department will handle.
- Three year budget comparison of the new department vs. outsourcing.
- Time line comparison of the new department vs. outsourcing.
- A SWOT analysis of bringing these functions in-house.

Hope this helps.

Eric

Len's picture

Brandon,

Last Summer, my outfit reorganized and I was directed to stand up an all new Division. The mission of the new Division was vague. I found that the senior leadership tended to focus on drawing organizational charts and worrying about which people would go to the various Divisions in our Directorate. Meanwhile, we did not spend enough time/energy crafting the other elements of "organizational DNA," like determining authorities, defining new processes, and developing info management systems to support our new vision. Ten months later, I am the Director of this new Division and find that we are not really organized properly and lack the minimum level of personnel staffing that would reasonably be expected to accomplish all of the tasks that have come our way since the reorganization.

If I were to do this again, I would seek greater clarity on the anticipated roles and missions of the new Division. Failing that, I'd make assumptions regarding this key piece of info and would tell the Boss, "Unless otherwise directed, this is what I intend to do." Then, I would design the structure and budget to accomplish those things. If I didn't get the people and the money I requested (which is usually the case in my line of work), I would ask the Boss which part of my mission he wanted to defer. He'd probably tell me to shut up and get it done, but that's okay: the point would be that he was warned. A small bit of moral high ground to sustain me later, I suppose.

A book that I found to be reasonably useful when reorganizing was:
"Results : Keep What's Good, Fix What's Wrong, and Unlock Great Performance" -- by Gary L. Neilson, Bruce A. Pasternack

Regards,
Len