Imagine a factory manager. To check the warehouse inventory, they have to open the warehouse manager's Excel file. To see the production status, they open another file. And for costs, they wait for the finance department's report. They are drowning in data but have no access to information.
In the industry, this phenomenon is called Information Silos—and it’s not a problem exclusive to your factory; it’s a global pain point.
What exactly is an information silo?
Imagine organizational data is kept in separate departments and systems, and these systems cannot communicate with each other. As a result, each unit becomes an independent island. Production has its own data, the warehouse has its own, and finance and quality have theirs. The problem is that no one sees the complete picture. In the manufacturing industry, these silos usually form between systems like ERP, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), and Quality Management Systems (QMS). Data gets trapped in each, making a unified view impossible. The result? Slow decision-making, difficulty in tracing production issues, and a manager who is always one step behind the factory's reality.
How has the world tackled this issue?
It must be noted that this is not just a local problem. A study in manufacturing shows that 35% of organizations directly struggle with internal information silos, and 42% have difficulty sharing insights between teams. The manufacturing industry is particularly vulnerable because its departments have evolved in isolation. There is also the constant need for managers to have real-time access to information across all these silos.
So, what is the global solution? Moving towards integration, not replacement! Industrialized countries have concluded that you don't need to replace all systems with one massive software. It is enough to create an integration layer that collects data from different systems and creates a single source of truth. Let’s look at some examples:
Global Example 1: Maxion Wheels
This global automotive wheel manufacturer, with 24 plants, struggled for years with scattered ERPs across different countries. Sales reports took days to generate, and production shortfalls in Malaysia went unnoticed in Germany until they impacted customer delivery. After integrating their data, sales report generation time dropped from 3 days to 2 hours, and data updates were performed in 10 seconds.
Global Example 2: American Woodmark
This cabinet manufacturer, with 18 plants, suffered from legacy systems and scattered Excel files. After connecting financial, purchasing, and project data into a single platform, manual effort for data management was reduced by 75%, and data moved towards real-time.
Global Example 3: Best Pump and Flow
This high-pressure equipment manufacturer managed its processes across 21 separate software applications. After integration, indirect staff (support and administrative) were reduced by 50%, while products were manufactured faster and in greater numbers.
Nebkatum: Designing Solutions, Not Forcing Software
The common denominator of all these examples is not "the world's best software." The common denominator is that each company designed a solution tailored to its own processes, not the other way around. In Iran's power plants and manufacturing factories, the exact same conditions prevail; with the difference that these silos are mostly dependent on Excel files and scattered software. No two organizations have identical processes.
At Nebkatum, relying on our expertise in industrial engineering and automation, we do not force a ready-made software on you. We first understand your processes, map your existing information silos, and then design an integrated industrial ERP and management dashboard that aligns exactly with your structure; from connecting to PLCs and production line sensors to a dashboard that the senior manager sees on their mobile or web browser.
An example of an integrated ERP dashboard at Aria Electric Motor Industries. At a glance, the CEO can view the efficiency of three production lines, the status of petrochemical and power plant orders, and critical warehouse alerts. Data is received directly from production line PLCs and updated every 10 seconds.
Conclusion
We must remember that information silos are not a management failure; they are a natural stage in the growth of any industrial organization. But halting at this stage carries a heavy cost: delayed decisions, production lines halted by a single part, and managers who are always behind reality.
If you feel that data in your organization is trapped in separate silos, get in touch with Nebkatum experts. We design and implement a solution tailored to you, from A to Z.
