Functional silos

Successful corporate leaders have found ways to break down the walls of functional silos that inhibit accountability and communication. Their senior management... 

All firms within the supply chain will have their own functional silos that must be overcome and a process approach that must be accepted in order to successfully implement SCM. The requirements for successful implementation of SCM include ... 

To effectively use assets, supply chain leaders have found that they cannot be insular. They have found that they must tear down the bricks between the silos of their own internal organizations to stretch across networks to build lasting supply chain processes. The walls of these functional silos are difficult to break down, but they must be dislodged to build the end-to-end supply chain. For, it is now not just a company s bricks, but the responsibility for all the assets of the extended network that is paramount. 

To be effective at market sensing, companies have to build strong horizontal processes to connect downstream and upstream data. Traditionally, supply chain processes have evolved from vertical processes. These functional silos—source, make, and deliver—gave birth to supply chain management. However, this silo approach, and a focus on vertical excellence, is both a barrier and an enabler to maximize value and build strong networks. It is a conundrum. Companies need to build strong vertical silos to deliver operational excellence but at some point in their maturity, they must "break the glass" and shift their focus to build horizontal excellence. 

The inertia to continue historic supply chain practices is high. During the first 30 years of supply chain management, pioneers built strong, functional silos. They focused on projects and aligned metrics... 

With every new technology, there is a hype cycle. Smart supply chain leaders will shepherd their teams through the transition. However, doing so requires skepticism, patience, and organizational support. It requires a guiding coalition. Problems such as this cannot be solved in functional silos. 

This phenomenon is commonly seen with respect to college sports. When a team is doing well. University stakeholders rally (often across functional silos and hierarchy) around the team. This makes their organizational identity more salient and they become more vocal about their university affiliation. The related pep rallies, games, and water cooler conversations reinforce employees connections to the organization and to each other. This is probably what was behind a Big School staff member s hopes to Cont. to build the] acadc reputation sports program. Echoed a Big School faculty member, I think we could all do with some more Big School] campus spirit. The individual s institutional pride was based upon academic reputation and the success of Big School s sports teams. 

Did information about the changing situation spread like v fire across old boundaries (e.g., functional silos or cliques) ... 

Solid waste management builds on dynamic thinking, i.e., seeing the bigger pictnre. It reqnires the ability to rise above functional silos and view the recycling process that links the recycled products. The plastics waste process enables the determination of plausible explanations to be identified, i.e., relationships that are not under the control of a decision within a system should be eliminated from consideration. Essentially, this perspective means viewing plastics... 

This description of Golden Circle fits that of what Limerick et al. (2000) refer to as a functional organization that is appropriate under conditions of stability but inappropriate under conditions of change because of its inherent formality and the presence of functional silos that inhibit the organizations responsiveness to changes in its competitive environment. 

The founder is no longer fully informed Breakdown into divisions (functional silos)... 

Process-Based Measures Help Reduce Conflicting Goals/Functional Silos... 

Organisational complexity is partly driven by the number of levels in the business and by the decision-making structure. Typically organisations with many levels and with many functional silos tend to be slow to respond to changed conditions and slow in new product development and introduction. One effective way to reduce this source of complexity is by a greater emphasis on working across functions, particuiariy by creating process teams - an idea to which we shall return in Chapter 12. 

The guidance function is a highly complex function with many interdependent sub-functions, which can be safety functions (S1L1-S1L4) or non-safety functions (SILO), implemented over distributed subsystems. The integrated development approach is tailored to provide evidence of safety of the entire system through ... 

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