Nike’s go-faster plan to shave a month off delivery times

Nike is planning to speed up manufacturing and, according to this report in Quartz, shave more than a month off delivery times. The report follows the sneaker brand’s investor day at the end of October. Chief executive Mark Parker said the company still intended to “outrun” its competition, despite a reported slowdown in sales. Among the new moves being made by Nike, is near-shoring production facilities to serve the North American market, as well as increasing manufacturing in Latin America. Mr Parker said the company would introduce greater levels of automation, to not only speed up production times but tackle escalating labour costs. The company’s chief operating officer, Eric Sprunk, also said there needed to be a migration towards a “responsive model” of production, which would slash lead times and respond to what consumers were actually buying. Mr Sprunk said new measures allowed the company to cut its manufacture-to-market time from about 60 days to 10 or fewer.