Department Silos Hurt Quality in Manufacturing 

As traditional workplaces evolve into remote and hybrid setups, companies face the challenge of dismantling team silos and adapting to new collaboration hurdles.

Team silos occur when departments work in isolation, hesitating to share information with others. If ignored, this mentality can disrupt organizations and have enduring negative impacts on overall success.

This blog will take you to the details of understanding what is Silo in manufacturing business, how it affects the quality and best practices to avoid silo in manufacturing business. 

Understanding Business Silos

Originally, the term "silo" referred to containers for storing grain or missiles. Now, it's used as a metaphor for separate parts of a business that keep information to themselves. In business context, this is called a "silo mentality." It happens when different parts of a business don't share information well.

This can start from the top with senior managers competing against each other. They might not want to share information, and this attitude can spread to the rest of the employees. Even employees in different departments might not share information because their tasks overlap or they want to keep it to themselves.

It's not just about egos; sometimes, employees are so focused on their daily tasks that they don't see the big picture. They might not realize the importance of the information they have for others.

No matter the reason, a silo mentality exists because the top management allows it.

When different parts of a business don't communicate well, it can create problems. Departments might end up using wrong or outdated information. These issues can make it harder for companies to provide value to customers and can hurt their profits.

What Causes Silo in Manufacturing?

Silo issues in manufacturing often arises due to the various causes:

• Leadership Conflicts: Disagreements among team leaders about plans or strategies can lead to communication problems and decreased productivity.
• Poor Information-Sharing: When teams don't have incentives to share information with other departments, it creates productivity challenges and can result in duplicative work.
• Unclear Priorities: A lack of focus on larger priorities within organizations can breed a silo mentality, with teams concentrating on narrow, department-specific goals.
• Communication Obstacles: Inadequate communication channels contribute to team silos, hindering effective collaboration. Organizations relying solely on email miss opportunities for a healthier digital culture.
• Lack of Feedback Opportunities: Organizations not prioritizing feedback often experience closed, siloed behavior, blocking collaboration.
• Narrow Expertise: Overemphasizing specific expertise at the expense of cross-functional knowledge leads to isolated team silos, lacking a broader perspective essential for collaboration.

How does Department Silos Impact Quality in Manufacturing?

When different departments like design and engineering, production, quality, logistics, maintenance, and supplier quality engage in a "blame game" instead of taking responsibility for effective solving problems in manufacturing, the overall quality of work and outcomes can be significantly affected in several ways:

• Delays in executing the plans: When there is no responsibility and authority balanced, it is difficult to execute the plans and adopt new systems because no one will be able to go for adjustments. The responsibilities unmatched with authorities will not allow employees to go extra miles for business growth.
• Lack of Accountability and Learning: When no one takes responsibility for problems, there’s a missed opportunity for learning and improvement. Understanding and addressing the root causes of issues is essential for continuous improvement, but this can't happen in a blame-centric culture.
• Decreased Collaboration and Communication: When departments are more focused on blaming each other, they are less likely to collaborate effectively. This lack of cooperation can lead to poor communication, resulting in misunderstandings and errors that compromise quality.
• Delayed Problem Resolution: The silo often leads to delays in identifying and resolving the actual issue. Each department may be more focused on defending itself rather than working on a solution, causing prolonged periods where the problem remains unaddressed.
• Compromised Product Quality: In scenarios involving physical products, such as in manufacturing, the quality of the final product can suffer. For instance, if there's a flaw in the design that the production department fails to communicate effectively, or if there are issues with supplier quality that aren’t addressed promptly, the end product may have defects.
• Lower Employee Morale and Engagement: A culture of silo can create a toxic work environment. There will always be clashes and chaos among employees and team members regarding policies of business, working pattern and future goals as well. Employees may feel demotivated and less engaged, which can further degrade the quality of their work and their willingness to take initiative in solving problems.
• Inefficiency and Wasted Resources: A lot of time and resources can be wasted in the process of shifting blame rather than addressing the core issue. This inefficiency can lead to increased costs and reduced productivity.
• Customer Dissatisfaction: Ultimately, the internal problems within an organization can become apparent to customers, either through lower quality products or services, or longer wait times for problem resolution. This can lead to customer dissatisfaction and harm the business reputation.

Overall, the quality in all aspects – product, process, and work environment – can be significantly compromised when departments engage in a blame game rather than working collaboratively towards solutions.

How to Deal with Silo in Manufacturing Businesses - Best Practices

Avoiding the pitfalls of a blame game culture and improving interdepartmental collaboration for better results involves several key strategies:

Fostering Open Communication: 

Encouraging open and honest communication is crucial. This means creating an environment where employees feel safe to express their concerns, ideas, and feedback without fear of blame or retribution. Regular interdepartmental meetings, transparent communication channels, and an open-door policy by management can help in facilitating this.

Establishing Clear Goals and Expectations: 

Clearly defined goals and expectations help align all departments towards a common objective. When each department understands how their role fits into the bigger picture and what is expected of them, it reduces ambiguity and the likelihood of conflicts arising from misunderstandings.

Conducting Well-Led Meetings: 

Effective meetings are essential for interdepartmental collaboration. These meetings should be well-planned and focused, with a clear agenda and objectives. They should encourage participation from all departments, ensuring that each department's voice is heard and their concerns are addressed.

Create a safe space for feedback:

Make a safe space for feedback to help everyone grow. Teams can have regular sessions to talk about projects, making it easier for people to share their thoughts. Breaking down team barriers and welcoming feedback is important. The key is to make an environment where people feel safe to share without blaming anyone. A healthy culture that encourages feedback boosts growth and productivity, shifting from isolated teams to a more connected and collaborative way of working.

Use a single, centralized communication channel

Use one main way to talk to everyone about the quality management in business, like Qualitygram. This can make work 30% more productive. Having all conversations in one place makes it easier and faster to work together. Qualitygram lets you talk one-on-one, discuss a particular issue while involving only needful members in that system, assign and track issue resolving and categorize the issues to work accordingly.  It allows businesses to track who is working on which issue resolving process without undergoing Silo in the business environment.

By implementing these strategies, organizations can create a more collaborative, efficient, and positive work environment, leading to better overall results and quality.

Wrapping up

In conclusion, breaking down silos and promoting teamwork is tough but crucial for a successful organization. Silos not only create collaboration hurdles but also harm morale and productivity in the long run. While teams may value open collaboration, it's essential to revise procedures and introduce company-wide initiatives for a unified vision. Implement the strategies mentioned here to bring people, resources, and tools together, fostering collaboration in your organization.

For those who are looking for some problem solving software based solution to get rid of silos in their manufacturing business, Qualitygram can be the right fit. Its an app that allows you to capture problems and track them as they get solved with a highly visual image and video based interface. With Qualitygram, assigning quality management tasks, managing customer tickets, providing instant solutions and tracking the progress of quality is easy.

If you want to know more about the abilities of Qualitygram or want to try it, reach us today to book your demo and a free trial.