Original Date: 09/14/1998
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

The primary function of Raytheon Missile Systems Company’s (RMSC’s) Proposal and Media Support Services department is to support proposal publications. Other responsibilities include multimedia presentations, document reproduction, graphics design, electronic publishing, and other related services. Recent restructuring efforts have significantly reduced the department’s personnel without decreasing its workload. In addition, the workload fluctuates from less than ten proposal projects to as much as 40 per year. RMSC wanted to develop a flexible organizational structure that could acclimate to the department’s changing needs.

To accomplish this goal, RMSC shifted its Proposal and Media Support Services department from a traditional, vertical organizational structure to a highly flexible one. This flexible structure permits the rapid buildup and disbandment of Special Project Support Teams as proposal, presentation, graphic, and multimedia needs arise. In addition, the approach provides true integrated and shared support functions that are supported by cross-functional teaming. The goals are to maximize available resources; eliminate bottlenecks and excessive paper handling; address business cycle fluctuations; serve the needs of the customer; retain core competencies; eliminate redundancies; and maximize opportunities for cost savings. During peak load times, the company outsources some of the support services.

The Proposals and Media Support Process Teaming focuses on customer needs, utilizes department capabilities, and eliminates the need to draw resources from core service providers or fill voids with contract labor. Under the new process, RMSC reduced the number of department managers from 31 to 20, decreased supervisory positions by 61%, and increased in-house production staff by 12%. More than 75% of special support services are now transferred directly to the benefitting organizations.

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