Innovation Activities
Innovation is one of the most essential factors in the sustainable and efficient development of the company. The company’s executives might choose among different solutions and innovation activities, depending on the selected process. In the case of Nike, it was identified that sustainable manufacturing is vital for the organization’s future development. Sustainability-Oriented Innovation (SOI) activities suggested by experts can be chosen to generate improvement ideas by employees of the company that would be work best for the sustainable manufacturing process. SOI model activities include operational optimization (small, incremental changes) and systems building (radical, disruptive changes) that encourage the development of sustainable solutions for the organization and can be proposed for Nike that aims to transform its manufacturing to sustainable one (Adams et al., 2012).
The objective of the SOI activities is the creation of a net positive impact for the firm in sustainable dimensions of product and process innovation, knowledge management, systemic relationships that improve the deficiencies of the process with the usage of resources relocation, collaboration, and exploiting existing innovations (Adams et al., 2012). The SOI model’s utilization to gather improvement ideas for sustainable manufacturing should be performed by cross-functional teams, as suggested, to get a full overview of the possible challenges and solutions for sustainable manufacturing (Adams et al., 2012). Innovations are associated with significant risks for the subjects of creation, and innovations might be destructive, slowing down the company’s economic development’s growth rate in the short term (Pathak et al., 2017). Therefore, to avoid them, Nike should focus on preventive and proactive measures in different dimensions of sustainability-oriented innovation.
RASCI Model
The RASCI model defines who is responsible, accountable, who supports, who is consulted, informed in the sustainable manufacturing of Nike (Jeston, 2018). The following table provides an overview of the company stakeholders who are in charge of implementing different activities (Admin Eltis, 2019). The CEO of Nike should be responsible for all the activities to establish sustainable manufacturing and overlook other stakeholders and facility manager in charge of factory operation. The legal advisor is accountable for internal legal consulting related to official documents and regulations; the external consultant is responsible for providing independent advisory services. The financial director observes the financial flows and assesses the economic value of activities, while the HR director helps to assign employees to operations on production. Logistics and Procurement managers are accountable for supply activities to source all materials for the facility.
Performance Management
All stakeholders involved in sustainable production at Nike should have common objectives and performance management metrics that will ensure effective behavior and contribution to united activities and goals. The first metric is Nike’s Manufacturing Index that assesses sustainability performance (including labor practices), and three traditional manufacturing metrics (cost, quality, and on-time delivery, “Sourcing and Manufacturing Standards,” n.d.). According to this metric, it is suggested that stakeholders should achieve a bronze threshold (compliance with code of conduct and sustainable international regulations) on the line of from red (low) to gold (excellent) performance in 1 year after the implementation of the establishment of sustainable production (“Manufacturing,” n.d.).
The Zero Waste Index that fits the process objectives in achieving zero waste production at Nike would be the second metric that will be assessed in 1 year, aiming to get at least 30% on the zero waste scale (Zaman & Lehmann, 2012). The final target would be the renewable energy rate at the facility that would be evaluated in 1 year and achieve 20% at the production sites. All metrics fit the process objectives to establish sustainable manufacturing and will also be evaluated quarterly to determine whether stakeholders achieve the intermediate results. Necessary adjustments will be introduced according to key performance metrics specified in the organization.
References
Admin Eltis. (2019). RASCI matrix. Eltis. Web.
Jeston, J. (2018). Business process management: Practical guidelines to successful implementations (4th ed.). Pearson.
Manufacturing. (n.d.). Nike Blog.
Pathak, P., Singh, M. & Sharma, Dr. (2017). Sustainable manufacturing: An innovation and need for future. International Conference on Recent Innovations in Engineering and Technology. Web.
Sourcing and manufacturing standards. (n.d.). Nike Blog. Web.
Zaman, A. & Lehmann, S. (2013). The zero waste index: a performance measurement tool for waste management systems in a ‘zero waste city’. Journal of Cleaner Production, 50, 123-132. Web.