IT/OT Organizational Design Evolves

Managing people, work process, and technology is the collective responsibility of a technical organization focused on manufacturing. Much like other business segments, as time marches on, the manner in which people organize and interact with technology must inevitably change. In particular, ARC Advisory Group has observed that the convergence and overlap of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) in recent years has created organizational confusion around ownership and responsibility. Table 1 summarizes the impact that IT has had on manufacturing operations over the last half century.

Technological change, in this case, the convergence of real-time operations technology with transactional information technology is but one element of change to which organizations must adapt. Clearly, if an organization cannot adapt, its ability to serve its customers will decline, resulting in dissatisfaction and potentially declining performance, which ultimately could threaten business viability. To prevent an organization's declining performance, it's critical to assess its maturity or ability to evolve and change. The motivation for change could be for technology, economic, strategic, geopolitical, or other (yet unknown) reasons in the future. Whatever the cause, organizations need to refresh their thinking periodically and modify their organizational design to adapt and survive.

At the recent 2015 ARC Industry Forum in Orlando, Florida, a dedicated workshop, "Best Practices for Developing Organizational Structure for Securing and Managing Automation and IT," explored this topic in depth.

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Keywords: Organizational Design, IT, OT, Best Practices, Organizational Maturity Model, ARC Advisory Group.