You're facing communication breakdowns between sales and production. How can you bridge the gap effectively?

Everything starts with establishing clear communication channels. Having the team on the same page while understanding each others individual goals and objectives is the key to a cohesive team.

In my experience, we should begin by ensuring that the company's purpose is clearly defined and understood across all departments. Each industry has its unique approach to sales and production engagement. Companies with make-to-stock models will have different end-to-end goals compared to those with make-to-order models. Without a holistic view across departments, goals may lead to a silo culture without anyone realizing it.

Normalmente durante años no han hablado el mismo idioma y aseguro que se produce ITMS que ya no se vende como antes y esto baja la productividad de la planta, afecta los costos del producto estrella, esta lucha inerte al final mata a las empresas. Analizar los inventarios y tendencia del mercado, al final estos indicadores ayuda a tomar desiciones en conjunto. Propongo hacer talleres de costos y rentabilidad entre producción y ventas, invertir una semana cada tres meses hacer que los supervisores y vendedores intercambien puestos, para ver la complejidad y soluciones de vender y producir. El trabajo hombre con hombro, ventas y producción se logra mejorar inventarios, planes de producciones, también lograr costos y rentabilidad optimas.

One thing is to communicate the organization's global goals to leaders and teams. Another is to ensure that objectives are shared among departments. It is a significant step forward when a commercial director shares their objectives with their production counterpart and vice versa. This practice should be extended to the rest of the team. The CEO's role in this regard is crucial to making this synergy a reality. Silos between areas are the main obstacles to achieving goals as a whole.

To improve a process, it is crucial to capture the end-to-end current state, with particular attention to communication channels, messages, and expectations. Highlight sections of the process that cause conflict between sales and production, such as communication issues, and capture baseline metrics to compare improvement results. Then, the process can be redesigned or enhanced by incorporating technology and necessary meetings like S&OP, Design, Expedite request, etc.

Purpose, along with goals to achieve it and a well-defined process to frame the path, are essential pillars. Nevertheless, people interactions are the internal fuel powering the production and sales experience, leading to high-quality products and highly satisfied clients. Nurturing team building and fostering a culture of transparent collaboration is fundamental to bridging the communication gap.

Transparent feedback loops and data captured during the process are crucial for fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Incorporating diverse perspectives and measurable results is essential to align expectations and make necessary adjustments to processes, capabilities, or competencies.

Technology is a force multiplier, but to leverage it effectively, a structured process is essential. New technologies in the artificial intelligence space are accelerating productivity and user experiences. These models require consistent data, which can only be generated from a process that considers the end-to-end desired experience. Automating broken processes or using unreliable data will create more problems than solutions. Adhering to the guiding principles of prebuilt technologies is crucial for framing good processes, generating reliable data, and fueling innovations. With these foundations in place, you will see productivity improvements and enhanced sales experiences as your Sales and Production teams operate in unison.