Although Enterprise Engineering has the responsibility for the preparation of Position Descriptions, it is not unusual for others to prepare them; e.g., User Management, Personnel Administration, Human Resource Management.

PREPARING THE PHYSICAL MODEL

Contrary to the logical model of the enterprise, which is structured in a specific manner, the physical model may be structured many ways. Whereas functions are used to provide a generic description of the enterprise, positions are used to show how the enterprise actually works, and the two models will not necessarily match. For example, one function may be implemented by multiple positions; and one position may implement many functions.

The physical structure of the enterprise is based on how management wishes to organize and operate the enterprise. It represents administrative reporting with levels of authority. Ultimately, it depicts the "chain of command" for an enterprise.

The enterprise may have evolved into an elaborate organization structure with many layers of management, or it may be very "flat" with few levels of reporting. One structure is not necessarily better than another (although there are some good arguments for flattening the organization). What is important is that the enterprise be structured in the most productive means possible.

REPRESENTING RELATIONSHIPS

EEM does not mandate any particular organizational structure; any can be represented. To do so, certain resource relationships must be observed in the IRM:

• DIRECT/DOTTED RELATIONSHIPS - This denotes the administrative reporting relationship. Direct means that one job is under the direct administrative authority of another. A dotted relation represents an indirect authority. One example of "dotted" is where an outside consultant is contracted to perform a job, such as a lawyer, accountant, programmer, etc.

  • For physical positions (OE resources), the "direct" relationship is used to denote administrative reporting. "Dotted" refers to a temporary or external job subordinate to a parent position. The result is a hierarchy showing superior/subordinate/lateral relationships. Consult the "Organizational Resource Relationships" below for additional details.

• LINE/STAFF RELATIONSHIPS - This is used to describe the role a position (OE) plays in an organization. "Line" refers to a job that has the responsibility for performing the principal work effort. "Staff" refers to a job that supports another position. For example, secretarial and clerical positions are often used to expedite or provide assistance for other jobs.

The following "Organizational Resource Relationships" Chart shows the types of relationships between all of the organization resources.

ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCE RELATIONSHIPS

MACHINE RESOURCES

Defining human resources is a relatively simple task in comparison to defining machine resources. Quite often a company is unaware of all of the equipment at their disposal and how it is applied.

Machines such as computers, robots, and other equipment should be identified as machine resources (RE) and cross-referenced as a "dotted/line" relationship to the positions they support (OE to RE). In addition, their particular skills and proficiencies should be noted. For example, a computer can have the skill of "Transaction Processing"; its proficiency may be based on how fast it can process transactions.