So, what is the difference between efficient vs effective Supply Chain?

There are multiple functions within Supply Chain like procurement, logistics, and warehousing. The leadership within each of these functions strives to be the best and most efficient at what they do. And often, these efforts are successful because the leadership mainly have full autonomy over their team and processes.

But what happens beyond the walls of these controlled functions is a different story!

The cross-functional activities that defines how effective is your supply chain, are more complex and difficult to measure and manage.
Very often companies ignore focusing on cross-functional management due to the lack of know-how and the tools to help them navigate through this complex nature of Supply Chain.

What happens when cross-functional management is ignored?

Information Silos or Silo Mentality is the inevitable outcome of ignored cross-functional management. Silo Mentality is when specific team or department fail to interact, share knowledge or collaborate effectively with those in other departments.
Silos are more common in corporate environment regardless of size and structure. The active participants who are causing this dynamic, might not be aware of the damage being caused because of this power struggle. The impact of Silo Mentality may destroy companies if left unchecked.

Some of the symptoms of the Silo Mentality:

How to manage an effective Supply Chain and bring down the Silos?

It is clearly now that your Supply Chain can be efficient in one silo or department but not effective across the Supply Chain.

We have been managing, measuring and improving cross-functional teams for years now. Generally, it comes down to two things needed to successfully breakdown silos and manage the Supply Chain effectively:

1. 1. Leadership: recognize the importance of breaking down silos to help people collaborate across boundaries.
2. 2. Tools: be able to manage and tangibly measure the Supply Chain across all functions.
   Because it is not an easy task to do, you need the right Supply Chain Management ERP software to help you with this task. Unless of course your team consists of many experts in information management and databases.

When we created Masterlinxx, the first thing we embedded in the design of this software is the integrations among all functions, and an unstoppable transparency to stop the Silos in your organization at its core.
Even if your company has some sort of a Silo Mentality, masterlinxx can travel across all barriers and provide each person and function the information they need to perform faster, more efficient and effective.

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