Cross-functional collaboration integrates diverse expertise towards shared business goals, aiding manufacturing companies in enhancing efficiency, producing quality products, resolving talent shortages, and meeting customer demands. However, this collaboration faces significant challenges. Discover the most prevalent issues arising in cross-functional teams alongside solutions to tackle them.
What Exactly is Cross-functional Collaboration?
Cross-functional collaboration involves integrating the knowledge, experience, and expertise of individuals from various areas into one cohesive unit, working towards a shared business objective. In a manufacturing context, cross-functional teams can resolve various issues, such as talent shortages and efficiency improvements.
Deloitte indicates that 79% of manufacturing company leaders agree that cross-functional collaboration is critical to attaining operational excellence. Another report by Gartner highlights that 90% of board directors acknowledge the heightened importance of cross-functional teams after the COVID-19 crisis. Given the challenges posed by the pandemic, such as decreased morale and inconsistent productivity, leveraging cross-functionality within teams can prove to be beneficial.
Exploring the Benefits of Cross-functional Collaboration
Cross-functionality is the key to unlocking heightened creativity by integrating diverse perspectives and skills. By converging different problem-solving approaches and understanding the thought processes of colleagues from various departments, individuals’ viewpoints expand, and their analytic capabilities are amplified.
With a concerning lack of employee engagement at 68%, it is imperative to recognize that engagement directly impacts productivity, profitability, work culture, and turnover rates. In all instances, cross-functional teams serve as a fundamental driver of cultural collaboration, uniting members from different sectors towards a common objective. In this vein, a comprehensive study conducted by McKinsey revealed that companies implementing robust collaboration practices have a twofold likelihood of surpassing their industry peers in terms of financial performance.
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” – Henry Ford
Uncovering the Challenges of Cross-functional Teams
Harvard Business Review revealed that approximately 75% of cross-functional teams fail to meet a minimum of three out of five important criteria, which include: adhering to a planned budget, staying on schedule, meeting specified requirements, satisfying customer expectations, and aligning with the overall corporate goals of the organization. Most of these issues are compounded by the following challenges that cross-functional teams encounter:
Different Priorities & Goals
One prevalent challenge in cross-functional teams arises from individuals having diverse functional priorities and objectives. This issue often stems from a lack of effective communication between teams, resulting from the absence of a centralized communication system. Organizations must establish robust communication channels to address this to ensure alignment and coordination across departments.
Information Overload
Without a doubt, the complexity of internal communication solutions can lead to information overload, causing confusion and a decline in employee productivity. To mitigate this challenge, providing employees from different departments with a centralized platform for communication, collaboration, and document sharing is crucial. In turn, this centralized hub promotes streamlined information flow, reducing the burden of information overload.
Lack of Trust
Collaboration is severely hindered when there is a lack of trust among employees working together on a project. The absence of trust hampers open communication and hinders successful work towards shared goals. Leaders play a pivotal role in bridging departmental silos and fostering a culture of trust. When these objectives and incentives are aligned, leaders can cultivate an environment that promotes trust and enables effective cross-functional collaboration.
Social Loafing
Social loafing may occur when individuals lack individual accountability, reducing productivity and engagement. To combat social loafing, it is essential to establish a set of criteria or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that hold both the entire team and individuals accountable across departments. These measures encourage individual commitment and ensure active participation within the cross-functional team.
Good Leadership
Effective cross-functional collaboration often relies on strong leadership that can guide the team to work in synergy. Without a capable leader who can inspire and influence employees to collaborate cohesively, the success of collaborative projects is at risk. A skilled leader is critical in orchestrating the team’s efforts, fostering a collaborative culture, and ensuring the project’s ultimate success.
Manufacturing environments are complex and their success relies heavily upon effective cross-functional teamwork. Working to improve cross-functional collaboration between all departments as well as hiring SMEs with a proven ability to communicate and collaborate well can set your team and organization apart from those who do not.