What is a cellular organization structure?

An organization built from self-managed cells — teams that each complete an entire (sub-)assembly process and own the quality and quantity of their output.

Characteristics:

• Structured around units/cells that complete the entire assembly process
• Workers manufacture whole products or sub-assemblies in teams (cells)
• Every cell is responsible for improving/maintaining quality and quantity of its products
• Each team is free to reorganize itself to improve performance
• It is both a lean and flat structure built from self-managed teams

The contrast with classic division of labour: Taylorism splits work into tiny repeated steps across many people; cellular organization gives one team the whole process — trading some efficiency for ownership, motivation, and quality accountability.

Tip: Software engineering's "you build it, you run it" team model is cellular thinking applied to services — and "you secure it" is increasingly the third clause, with each cell owning the security of its own product.

Go deeper:

• Cellular manufacturing (Wikipedia) — self-managed cells that own a whole process, the counter-model to micro-divided labour.