SIDEBAR: Learn More . . .
- Real-Time One Domino at a Time
Demand forecasting can benefit from real-time data, but it's best to add it in phases.
CIO February 2004 www.Real-Time One Domino at a Time
- Future Results Not Guaranteed
Forecasting with a Human Touch.
CIO September 2003www.Future Results Not Guaranteed
- Timely Response
CIO September 2003www.Timely Response
SIDEBAR: Five Lessons Learned from Nike's i2 Debacle
- Be patient. Enterprise software implementations can't be rushed and they take time to demonstrate benefits. Nike had the luxury - and good sense - to avoid being driven by hard external deadlines. This enabled it to learn from the mistakes it had made in its i2 project.
- Define a business goal. Getting software up and running is not a goal; remaking the business is. Nike wanted to take three months out of its sneaker manufacturing cycle. The clarity of its business case sustained the project when things went south in 2000.
- Re-engineer processes.
"Blank sheet" re-engineering can lead to unrealistic business process designs that can't be implemented through enterprise software. But deep discussions of how business is conducted can lead to something invaluable: a clear, performance-based goal for the project. - Just do it over. When poor integration, inadequate training, unstable software and spotty testing derailed Nike's i2 project, Nike redoubled its efforts in those areas to avoid similar problems when it began rolling out its fully integrated enterprise software platform.
- Keep your eye on the prize. Many companies today are trying to consolidate the separate versions of ERP they installed either to beat the Y2K deadline or to satisfy divisional managers. Nike held fast to a single-instance strategy. It added years to the project but will likely save the company money in the end.
SIDEBAR: If It Was Easy, Everyone Would Just Do It
Nike's global single-instance strategy is the envy of ERP geeks. According to a recent AMR Research survey of 110 big companies (80 percent had revenue of $US500 million or more) using ERP, only 23 percent said they had single instance, while another 36 percent are trying to get there, and 17 percent are trying to at least get their instances down to one per major global region - and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to do so.
Nike can certainly testify to the downside of the strategy - a long, difficult road to process change. But Nike's centralized planning, production and delivery processes for sneakers are tailor-made for the single-instance strategy, because there are few unique, localized processes to mix up that big database.
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