Donato BlandolinoIn transformation projects, IT, finance and production talk about the same problem, but do not speak the same language. SAP says ‘company code’, the shift supervisor says ‘the line is down’, and controlling says ‘variance’. Unless someone at the table speaks all three, there is no eye-level collaboration, however respectful the interaction. Without it, information the project needs gets lost.
A party where everyone was the same height
Berlin, 1997. Artist Hans Hemmert invited people to a party where every guest wore shoes of exactly the height needed to reach two metres. Short people on high platforms, tall people on low ones. For one evening, nobody looked down and nobody looked up. The work is called ‘Level’.
The image stayed with us because it shows exactly what transformation projects usually lack: not the goodwill to meet at eye level, but the arrangement that actually makes it possible.
Why everyone in a project stands on different shoes
In a typical transformation project, IT stands on its own shoes, finance on different ones, and production on none at all. Everyone talks. Nobody talks to one another at the same height, because nobody speaks the other's language.
The problem is not arrogance, but specialist terminology. Over the years, each function has developed a vocabulary that is precise internally and incomprehensible externally. Three examples of the same problem in three languages:
| Function | What it says | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| SAP / IT | ‘The movement type has not been maintained.’ | The system cannot post the transaction the shopfloor performs every day. |
| Production | ‘The line is down because material is missing.’ | The material is there, but the system shows it at a different storage location. |
| Controlling | ‘Inventory variance.’ | The shopfloor and the system tell two different stories.The shopfloor and the system tell two stories |
| Engineering | ‘The bill of materials has not been released.’ | Production has been building to a version that officially does not exist for weeks. |
All four describe the same situation. In the meeting, they sound like four different problems, and are often assigned to four different people. That is the moment a solvable issue becomes a project risk.
Why translators do not solve the problem
Most projects respond with translators: workshops to align terminology. Process manuals containing both languages. Key users moving between the two worlds.
This rarely works, for two reasons.
- Translation takes time. Every piece of information passing through a translator arrives later. In a project where decisions must be made within days, a week-long translation loop is the difference between amber and red.
- Something is lost at every step. The key user explaining to the SAP consultant why the shopfloor bypasses the process knows the shopfloor, but not the configuration. The consultant knows the configuration, but not the shopfloor. Both translate what they understand and leave out what they do not. In the end, the information is correct but incomplete, and nobody notices.
Translators are an aid when nobody at the table speaks both languages. They are not a substitute for someone who does.
What is needed instead
Someone who speaks the languages themselves. SAP, engineering, production, logistics, finance. Not a specialist in all five, but someone who has worked in each of these worlds before connecting them.
This does not make that person bigger than the others in the plant. It makes them the same height. With the machine setter at the line and the CFO on the steering committee, vertically and horizontally throughout the organisation. They stand on the shoes needed to meet everyone at two metres.
What this changes in practice:
- The diagnosis is right the first time. Someone who hears ‘the movement type has not been maintained’ and also knows what the shopfloor does with it every day recognises the one problem behind the four descriptions.
- Decisions are made with all the information. Not the translated version, but the complete one.
- The workforce speaks up. People who realise the person at the table speaks their language say what is happening. People who realise everything first has to be translated say what can be translated.
We have made this journey ourselves, from goods receipt to the board of directors. That is exactly why we build teams so the languages themselves are at the table, not just the translators.
How to recognise eye-level collaboration in your project
Three questions are enough.
- Who at the table understands both what the SAP consultant says and what the shift supervisor means? If the answer is ‘nobody, but we have key users’, everything goes through translation.
- How long does it take for an observation from the shopfloor to become a decision in the steering committee? More than a week means it is being translated and filtered along the way.
- And who on the shopfloor would volunteer to tell the project manager that the new process is being bypassed? If nobody would, it is not respect that is missing. It is a shared language.
Eye-level collaboration in projects is not a matter of respect. It is a matter of language. Anyone who does not speak their counterpart's language is always looking down or up, however friendly their intentions.
Which language is missing at the table in your project right now?
Frequently asked questions
What does eye-level collaboration mean in transformation projects?
That someone at the table understands the specialist languages of every function involved: SAP, engineering, production, logistics and finance. Eye-level collaboration comes not from respectful interaction, but from information arriving without translation. Anyone who does not speak their counterpart's language is always looking up or down.
Why are key users and workshops not enough to connect IT and production?
Because translation takes time and information gets lost at every step. Key users translate what they understand and leave out what they do not. The information arrives correctly but incompletely, and nobody notices the gap. Translators help when nobody speaks both languages, but cannot replace someone who does.
How can you tell that a project lacks a shared language?
When the same problem appears in a meeting as four separate topics assigned to four different people. When an observation from the shopfloor takes more than a week to become a decision. And when nobody on the shopfloor would volunteer to tell the project manager that the new process is being bypassed.
Why do SAP projects fail over the language gap between IT and manufacturing?
Because ‘movement type not maintained’ and ‘the line is down’ describe the same problem, but nobody recognises that they do. The system is then built around IT's understanding of the process, not how the shopfloor runs it. After go-live, the shopfloor and the system tell two different stories.
About SMART iNTERIM
SMART iNTERIM Management is a transformation partner for manufacturing: Operational Transformation, SAP and Enterprise Transformation, Program & Project Management, as well as Interim Management and Executive Search. We bring hands-on experience, not a detached perspective. Headquartered in Switzerland, with an office in Dubai.
