A company produces kitchen appliances for several different brands. Each year, there are new designs with new features and new production challenges. You need an organizational structure that allows your purchasing department to keep a lean inventory without disrupting production. You need the flexibility of assigning engineers to a number of different products and diverting resources quickly from one line to another. Which type of organizational structure would work best?

A matrix structure organizes employees by both their functional specialty and the products or projects they support. This lets engineers work across several product lines and allows the company to shift people and other resources quickly when production needs change. Coordinating purchasing with product teams can also help keep inventory lean without interrupting production. The matrix structure is the best fit; a purely functional or product structure offers less flexibility across both dimensions.

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