Firm Organization

[CNAPIERALA]

I work in a smaller company of about 30 employees and function as the Cad Manager and IT administrator. Recently there has been some debate on firm org. so i guess I'm wondering how it is at other places.
Who is your direct supervisor and how do you relate the the other design staff?

Thanks,

Chris

[eleonard]

I am an asistant Cad Manager, there for I report to the cad manager, and he reports to the office manager. As far as the team who sets up orginization.... well i think our company could function a bit better. Our Designers answer to thier specific PM and the PM reports to the office manager. Our IT staff is incharge of all network orginization based on office manager, PM and Cad Manager suggestions.

Now our office could use some major orginization as far as how work enters the cad department and scheduling. But that i think will be a major issue to tackel here in this office.

I hope that helps.
Emily

[CNAPIERALA]

Its interesting that everyone reports to the office manager. Are they in charge of the global office operations then i assume?
We have some employees here with the office manager title but they their responsibilities include answer phone calls, order supplies and write letters.


Chris

[rfuller]

I think it really depends on the nature of the business. I currently have the title of CAD Manager and I report to the Director of Engineering. The main reason for this is so that I am considered a peer to the other Managers in the engineering department and there is no favoritism shown towards any of the engineering departments because of who you report to.

In our office the "Office Manager" is also responsible for the day to day operation of the building. Checking the mail, answering the main phone and ordering the office supplies.

[eleonard]

Apparently in our office, from what i have been told. You can not be an office manager unless you are a P.E. which is so wierd because I believe that not all P.E. can manage an office the way an office should be run. In our case or Office manager seems to favor the Engineers, and EIT's. And the thing that drives me the most crazy is that the office manager is more of a micro-manager and i see that our cad manager struggles because the office manager seems to run the cad department behind the scenes instead of letting th cad manager manage his department. We might have some difficulties when the current cad manager retires and i move up.

It is very intersting to see how different company's function.

[Glenn Pope]

It is very intersting to see how different company's function.
or dysfunction?

[rfuller]

Apparently in our office, from what i have been told. You can not be an office manager unless you are a P.E. which is so wierd because I believe that not all P.E. can manage an office the way an office should be run. In our case or Office manager seems to favor the Engineers, and EIT's. And the thing that drives me the most crazy is that the office manager is more of a micro-manager and i see that our cad manager struggles because the office manager seems to run the cad department behind the scenes instead of letting th cad manager manage his department. We might have some difficulties when the current cad manager retires and i move up.

It is very intersting to see how different company's function.

Without a doubt it's interesting to see how other companies function. Luckily all of the companies that I have worked for see the need for the CAD department to operate as an independent entity rather than a whipping boy of the engineering department. This gives me the ability to manage my CAD operators and leaves the engineers and engineering management to do their job instead of worrying about how I do mine.

Don't get me wrong, with the company that I work for now, it didn't get this way over night.

[Wanderer]

Without a doubt it's interesting to see how other companies function. Luckily all of the companies that I have worked for see the need for the CAD department to operate as an independent entity rather than a whipping boy of the engineering department. This gives me the ability to manage my CAD operators and leaves the engineers and engineering management to do their job instead of worrying about how I do mine.

Don't get me wrong, with the company that I work for now, it didn't get this way over night.
I work in facilities, so I'm sure my setup here is different than most... but, I am lumped in with the engineers. I don't work with them. I don't work for them. But, for some reason I answer to an engineer. I work with the contractors hired by our construction department (they are at a corporate level), as well as occasionally providing information and drawing services to the maintenance and other departments outside of facilities. ~shrug~

I've proposed expansions of my duties (~cough~ I need more staff~cough~) and if those went through, i'd push for a reorganization to have the cad group as a separate entity within facilities, not under engineering, or as part of the corporate planning group...

um, I don't recall if I had a point or not... I need some more coffee...

[amy.stuart]

Ours is pretty structured.... We have a Drafting Manager and she has a CAD manager under her and the CAD manager has 5 full AutoCAD users.

Then she also has 5 Group Leaders that report to her and each one has 9 drafters under them.

I report to her as well and i am the CAD Tech that sets up the standards, maintains block maintenance, does the installs, etc.

And of course the Drafting Manager has to report to the VP of our Division.

So we don't have an office manager. We have a few Admin. Assistants that help order supplies, answer phones, fix copiers, etc.

[rfuller]

Sounds like to me that each company has a different perspective on how the CAD Department should fit. Not that one is correct or better than the next, it's just whatever works for that company.

Interesting feed back.

[CNAPIERALA]

Yes very interesting. Thanks for everyones replies!