SCM and ERP Software Implementation at Nike: From Failure to Success

An AMR Research⁵ survey of 110 companies of annual revenues of $500 million or more using ERP revealed that only 23% had adopted a single instance strategy while 36% were planning to put it in place, while another 17% were trying to get the instances down to one per major global region and were investing considerable funds to achieve this.

Analysts acknowledged that Nike had indeed taken a bold step when it adopted the single instance strategy with its first ERP rollout. During the late 1990s, most companies avoided it due to its huge costs and bandwidth problems. Christopher Koch, Executive Editor, CIO Magazine, remarked, "If it was easy, everyone would just do it."⁶

All product development factory contracting and marketing activities were carried out at the company's headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon in the US. Nike's global operations were broadly divided into five geographic regions – United States; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); Asia Pacific and Americas (includes Canada, Mexico and other Latin American countries of Chile, Brazil and Argentina).

Since the mid-1970s, Nike has outsourced its manufacturing activities. The company's products were manufactured in factories owned and operated by its business partners commonly known as contractors around the globe.