An interface map of your core process with all handovers and the marked trouble spots.
interface management
Interface management: less friction between departments
Interface management: handovers that work
An interface is any point where work, information or responsibility passes from one person, department or system to another. Every handover can create errors, queries and waiting time if it is not deliberately designed.
Interface management makes these handovers visible and binding. Who delivers what, in what quality, by when, to whom? Which information has to be complete? What happens when there is a deviation? The tool is usually simple: a swimlane diagram, a list of handovers and clear agreements for the critical interfaces, internally and externally.
Sound familiar?
Interface problems rarely show up as such.
What you get
Less friction between departments and fewer hours in the meeting room:
Written handover agreements or SLAs for the critical interfaces, with a key figure.
A meeting inventory with a stop list and reasoning.
A meeting manifesto: rules, agenda templates, roles and cascade for your regular communication routines.
Trained facilitators for the regular meetings, usually from the management team.
Measurable impact: fewer queries, shorter waiting times, fewer meeting hours.
Clear responsibilities at the handovers where work gets stuck: who does the work, who decides, who is consulted and who is informed (RACI)
Frequently asked questions
Interface management: typical questions
What is interface management?
Interface management is the conscious design of the handovers between people, departments, sites or systems. It clarifies who delivers what, in what quality, by when and to whom, how feedback works and what happens in the event of deviations. The tools are process mapping with a swimlane diagram, handover agreements and service level agreements between departments. The aim is for work to flow from one point to the next without queries, waiting times and duplicated work. Most process losses arise at interfaces, which is why managing them is one of the most effective levers in process optimisation.
How do I improve collaboration between departments?
Not with team building, but with clarity. Map the shared process together with both departments, mark every handover and ask at each point what the receiving side needs in order to continue working immediately. Agree this in writing, with a measurable quantity such as completeness or response time, and set up a short regular meeting in which both sides discuss deviations. Most conflicts between departments are not personal conflicts but unclarified expectations. Once the expectation has been agreed, the frustration usually disappears by itself.
What is a service level agreement between departments?
An internal SLA is an agreement between two departments that makes a handover binding: what is delivered, in what quality, in what time, and how is it measured? For example: production planning receives complete order data from sales according to a checklist; incomplete orders go back within four hours; production planning delivers the production order within two working days. The SLA replaces expectations with agreements and provides a key figure that both sides can discuss objectively, instead of blaming each other.
How many meetings per week are appropriate for a manager?
There is no fixed number, but there is a rule of thumb: anyone who spends more than half of their working time in meetings is no longer leading, but reporting. For a production manager, the daily regular meetings of the cascade together should stay under one hour, plus a weekly department meeting and a monthly review. Anything beyond that should have a specific reason. More important than the number is the question of whether, after every meeting, it is clear who does what by when. If that is not the case, it was too much, regardless of the duration.