According to the Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey: Fourth Quarter 2023 from the National Association of Manufacturers, in the next 12 months:
- 68% of respondents expected their company’s production levels to increase by more than 10 percent.
- 95% expected their production levels to increase by 5-10 percent.
- 65% of respondents expected their company’s production levels to increase by up to 5 percent.
Cross-functional teams might have helped these manufacturing companies reach or exceed their production goals.
Streamlining production with cross-functional teams increases manufacturing efficiency, productivity, and problem-solving. Diverse expertise, knowledge sharing, and alignment with the production process improve decision-making, coordination, and innovation.
Benefits of Cross-Functional Manufacturing Teams
Cross-functional manufacturing teams provide diverse benefits:
- Expertise: Blending employees from different departments creates a comprehensive understanding of the product and process for more robust quality management strategies.
- Goal alignment: Aligning departmental goals toward a standard quality vision creates shared accountability to overcome barriers and create high-quality products.
- Training: Collaborative efforts support knowledge-sharing, mentorship, and skill development for continuous learning and improvement.
- Holistic perspective: Considering design specifications, materials selection, production techniques, and customer requirements helps identify quality issues early in the product development and manufacturing processes.
- Standardization: Developing and implementing standardized processes, procedures, and best practices ensures employees follow proven methods and reach established quality standards.
- Collaborative problem-solving: Promoting open communication helps diagnose the root causes of issues, implement corrective actions, and prevent recurrence.
- Data-based decision-making: Leveraging data and analytics to monitor performance, track quality metrics and trends, and measure key performance indicators (KPIs) helps ensure consistent quality outcomes.
- Risk mitigation: Proactively identifying and minimizing risks with manufacturing processes, supply chain vulnerabilities, and external factors helps prevent product defects, recalls, and disruptions.
- Continuous improvement: Regular meetings, reviews, and evaluations support ongoing improvements in quality performance.
- Customer focus: Including employees from sales, marketing, and customer service helps understand customer needs, preferences, and feedback, align quality objectives with customer expectations, and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Tips to Streamline Production with Cross-Functional Teams
Implement these tips to streamline production with cross-functional teams:
Set cross-functional team goals
Develop cross-functional team goals that align with company goals. These activities create structure, direction, and accountability to drive organizational change and manufacturing success.
Prioritize transparency
Emphasize transparency in the cross-functional team’s bandwidth, workload, processes, progress, and projects. Clarifying which team member is responsible for each task, duty, and responsibility elevates accountability. These activities strengthen trust and team member relationships.
Streamline communication
Use chat platforms, workflow management software, and other methods to share ideas, information, and strategies. Ensure the solutions integrate with your organization’s platforms and workflows to maximize collaboration.
Centralize databases
Use software to maintain data, assets, and related information in one location. Creating a single source of truth for your manufacturing company strengthens collaboration.
Are You Looking for Help Streamlining Production?
Let Impact Staffing get to work helping your manufacturing firm hire versatile employees skilled in areas such as machine operation, quality control, and inventory management. Reach out to learn more today.
