A Critical Tool Of Human Resource Management For Lean Manufacturing At Nike

The lean thinking has been established in a well manner in the competitive world. The countless business industries have proved their effective growth in terms of brand recognition and in terms of the good profit amount with the effective application of the lean production system in their operational activities. Toyota has added their name in the application of the lean thinking in their production process first in the global competitive market. The book “the Gold mine” written by Freedy and Michael Balle is a definite attempt to highlight the challenges that the leaders are facing in the perfect transformation of the lean thinking in their operational activities. This essay has discusses the direct connection between the content the

Despite changes in the market environments, Nike has stuck to its decentralized and networked organization structure. Each business center of the company focuses on their operation like research, marketing, or production. The company has subcontracted its most crucial operation, which is manufacturing itself. Besides this, it had also outsourced several back office and non-executive jobs.

After sluggish focus and growth in the 1980ies, Nike experienced strong growth in the 1990ies and cemented the position as global recognizable brand. The increased international focus created strains on the supply chain, which was consider inadequate to cater efficiently to the organization and the rapid changes consumer demands . As a consequence of the afore mentioned supply chain problem Nike faced inefficient inventory management, problems in flow of goods and poor demand

Currently, Nike stand as a leading figure in producing high quality sports and fitness equipment and apparels. Bearing just a simple start of selling Japanese imported shoes from a station wagon has transformed

As the brand name of Nike continue to soar, other companies in the industry; learning from the success Nike has experienced, start focusing more on brand development to keep up with the increasing levels of competition. These companies resort to brand maintenance, which has become the main target in this industry due to product differentiation made by Nike. Nike, being market-advantaged, produces an extensive range of products, through which it gains a balanced level of profits. This has influenced rival companies to initiate a new range of products in their businesses too. Previously these companies had high risks of failing in business, if their single products did not appeal to the market. Due to the impact of Nike’s business strategy, the other companies are also enlarging their product range,

Decreasing overhead through outsourcing is a valuable resource for Nike. Cutting costs by employing workers at a reduced rate or paying less for plant operation allows Nike to invest the additional profits into other areas of the business such as advertising, thereby increasing the potential for company growth. In addition, decreased operational costs are more likely to attract and retain company investors because more money can go into increasing business profitability.

A positive impact of Nike’s offshoring strategy was that it allowed Nike to meet the growing market demand of its customers that resulted from global economic growth. It created convenience so customers in other parts of the world could easily acquire Nike’s products and increased customer satisfaction as a result. Moreover, their strategy had a positive impact on the quality of the products offered in various markets. Since labor in Asian markets was able and very willing to meet the quality standards of Nike’s demands in order to retain production contracts, they could meet the expectations that Nike customers presented (Locke, 2002).

Nike has seldom manufactured products own premises, except their air bladders. The shoes are manufactured through outsourcing and alliances with other companies. A successful company like Nike formed its organization on the customer values that have the MOST impact on the consumers mind – Design/R&D, Marketing and Distribution. Even though manufacturing is a vital function to perform, Nike realized that there were other ways to go about this function and thereby save both cost and maintain its focus on the critical customer value areas.

Brands use different strategies to create competitive advantages to beat with their rivals. Some companies use “Overall Cost Leadership” to increase profit by reducing costs and increase market share by lowering price. Some companies use “Focus Strategies” to select a group of market and tailor its strategy to serve that group. The others use “Product Differentiation” as a strategy to obtain a premium price by making unique products. Nike, with its differentiation strategy, the company is continuing to separate its self from the competitors by using its superior technology and innovation. This paper mainly discusses on the company’s product differentiation and analysis how the company using this strategy to build its brand image and become a market leader in sportswear industry. A brief discuss about Nike competitive advantage which related to its broad differentiation aspect and the company product life cycle are also presented on this paper.

Low-cost, time-efficient manufacturing of goods is a key feature of a successful production company in today’s competitive global economy. Operations management, often abbreviated in the business world as OM, is defined as “...the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs (Heizer and Render, p. 4).” Every day, factories take in raw materials and use the labor hours and skills of their employees to transform those same materials into a variety of consumer products,

To study the impact on Lean practices on Organizational Performance of MAS Active Nike Division.

The Nike production system can be stratified into three classes; developed partners, volume producers and developing sources (Donaghu & Barff, 1990). Although Nike has developed different levels of supplier relationships with each class the production network is commonly classified as a ‘virtual enterprise’ where independent firms work together based on shared values and a common way of doing business to exploit a business opportunity through joint manufacturing (Pfohl & Buse, 2000).

has, it is very clear that the company is focusing on Nike's future business needs, developing the "bench strength" of the company’s ability through intentional pioneer advancement. In the long process of choosing the suitable candidates who are capable to work in the company, Nike is concerned in their team building because of their well-known brand image. In doing so, Nike can look for suitable candidates that are capable of discriminating task arranging, supervisor responsibility for training and tutoring, and organized learning by means of individual- and group based classroom and learning new things from the web. Looking ahead, key regions of center for NIKE, Inc. incorporate helping workers and supervisors see how to fabricate effective vocations through formal and casual preparing and improvement, enhancing administration advancement, and inviting thoughts. The compulsory test for job seekers who are looking up for higher positions in Nike, candidates have to take is to understand how the company works and how well will the candidates cop in working with the company for Nike’s main focus is to enhance the potential of their employee and develop a leadership capability, this is done in organization and ability audits straightforwardly connected to the business vital needs. In Nike, high position leaders and managers are considered responsible for enhancing the execution, potential,

Nike took responsibility and created stringent benchmarks for production associations - the Code of Conduct (CoC). While CoC became a need and necessity as it was evident that there still was more to be carried out to direct and deal with the inventory network. Nike constituted the CR Board. It also disclosed the locations of the source factories and manufacturing plants. Nike took measures to match the expectations and published its progress reports. This signalled Nike’s tough stand against these issues and that Nike takes is very seriously to strictly adhere to the best practices and find the solutions. This has resulted into transparency. It has empowered Nike to better fathom the issues and shape more fitting

- Nike should launch proper controls in order for them to monitor their operational processes.