IMC-2020 Presentation 32:24 Minutes
by Dalton Singer and Kofi Cobbinah, Nike Air MI
Nike Air Manufacturing Innovation, commonly referred to as Air MI, is a subsidiary of NIKE, Inc. that is best known for producing the cushioning Air soles that provide the lightweight, stable ride for the iconic line of Nike Air footwear models. The team imagines, designs and creates technology that elevates every athlete's* potential. Nike Air MI manufactures its most advanced Air sole units from three Nike facilities in the U.S., two of which are based in Oregon, near Nike's World Headquarters, and one near St. Louis, Missouri.
The team specializes in custom extrusion of polyurethane film and sheet, both aromatic and aliphatic. The technology results in high-quality outputs including flat-die custom sheet extrusion and twin-sheet thermoforming. The manufacturing plant boasts ISO9001 Certification and pursues manufacturing excellence by enforcing the highest standards across, safety, quality, and service.
Nike Air MI maintenance department is transitioning from a reactive maintenance program to a reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) strategy. At Nike Air MI, we believe achieving world-class maintenance is a destination and not a goal, and when implementing new strategies, we ensure systems are sustainable and directly affects the bottom-line of the business.
The maintenance team created goals centered around: PM optimization, spare parts optimization, technician training framework, autonomous maintenance improvement, continuous improvement projects and predictive maintenance that is evaluated every six months. This has yielded results that have:
- Created operational achievements for all facets of business including planning, inventory control, reliability, RCM program, among others.
- Improved training hours by 147 percent for maintenance techs since 2017.
- Created a comprehensive AM program exposing operations to general maintenance and enabled a recruiting ground for future maintenance technicians.
- Improved decision-making that has resulted with about 30 percent improvement in unplanned downtime compared from 2017 to 2020.
- Implemented equipment design reliability checklist that has been implemented as part of phase gate for new equipment design process.
Engineering and production at Nike Air MI have been supporting partners throughout the process, ensuring that reliability maintenance systems are implemented in all phases of project management, production process improvement and discussions on new equipment purchase or the improvement process. As with any sustainable improvement pursuing world-class standards, the bar is always being set higher.
*If you have a body, you are an athlete.
