4 The Project Based Organisation An Ideal Form For Managing Complex Products And Systems

This move back from a pure PBO to a project-led organisation shows the variety of choices involved and the need to match organisational form with the product mix in question. More generally, the paper indicates that the changing nature, composition, and scale of
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productrs have an important bearing on.appropriate organisational www.elsevier.nlrlocatereconbase forms. The management challenge facing CoPS producers is both to realise the potential of project-based forms for current mar- kets, and to develop the firm’s overall capabilities to exploit and create future market opportunities.

The project-based organisation: an ideal form for managing complex products and systems?
Mike Hobday )
Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU), Complex Prod. Sys. (CoPS) InnoÕ. Cen., Mantell Building, UniÕersity of Sussex, Falmer,
Brighton, East Sussex BN1 9RF, UK

Abstract
This paper examines the effectiveness of producing so-called CoPS Ži.e., complex high value products, systems, networks, capital goods, and constructs. in a project-based organisation ŽPBO., as compared with a more traditional functional matrix organisation. A simple model is developed to show how the PBO relates to identified forms of matrix and functional organisation and a case study is used to identify some of the strengths and weaknesses of the two organisational forms for CoPS production. On the positive side, the PBO is an intrinsically innovative form as it creates and recreates new organisational structures around the demands of each CoPS project and each major customer. The PBO is able to cope with emerging properties in production and respond flexibly to changing client needs. It is also effective at integrating different types of knowledge and skill and coping with the project risks and uncertainties common in CoPS projects. However, the
PBO is inherently weak where the matrix organisation is strong: in performing routine tasks, achieving economies of scale,

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