Basic HTML Version
that could be touched and also, in
some cases, functionally tested, have
been around for a long time. These
technologies are evolving very rapidly,
both in terms of machine and systems
and, more significantly, in the nature
and variety of the materials they can
process. Moreover, they have moved
out of the design department to be
used extensively to build entire parts of
the shoe.
Their name changed into direct
manufacturing technologies (or layer
manufacturing to recall the way in
which the object is created by
solidifying, layer after layer, thin slices
of the target material), to anticipate the
relevant role they will play in future in
the manufacturing industry in general
(the Economist mentioned them in two
articles as important enablers of what
that magazine calls the third industrial
revolution) and in shoemaking as well.
LEAN, GREEN AND CLEAN
When considering a shoe company as
a whole and how it interacts with the
environment, there is a new paradigm
emerging that can be summarised by
the slogan ‘lean, green and clean’. This
means producing only what is needed,
minimising waste in the manufacturing
process and using energy and other
resources in the most efficient and
environmentally friendly way. Such a
paradigm would imply rethinking
machines, systems, process flows,
company organisations and even
approach to the market. Quite a shift
that could profoundly transform the
world of shoemaking and one that may
be triggered by changes in consumer
attitudes and priorities that could force
companies to follow this path sooner
than they think.
LOCAL FOR LOCAL
We are used to thinking of footwear in
general terms as a ‘decentralised’ type of
business. Manufacturing facilities
concentrated in distant parts of the world
chosen through cost considerations,
serve a multitude of markets spread
across the globe. That is the concept that
we know and that has so far proved to be
successful — certainly for the balance
sheets of many companies.
This concept is now under discussion
and ‘local for local’ is an emerging trend
that some companies are already
considering. It aims to serve local
markets with local manufacturing
facilities of a smaller size and that take
advantage of the best and most modern
process
technologies
to
limit
manufacturing costs to an acceptable
level. If a minimum break-even cost
threshold is found, benefits in terms of
higher flexibility, better service to the
market, reduced carbon footprint are
evident. This is a further mindset
change that has the potential to
revitalise a manufacturing sector still
important for the economies of many
western countries.
HUMAN-ROBOTIC
COOPERATION
Producing footwear in high labour
cost countries certainly requires a
different approach to manufacturing as
such and a great deal of rethinking
regarding the mix of manual and
automatic operations in the various
steps of the shoemaking process. We
have already said how robots can take
over various processing and handling
tasks. What we will see in future will be
more advanced forms of human-robotic
cooperation or manufacturing setups in
which people and robots work side by
side, even with no physical barriers to
separate them, each covering those
tasks that are most suited to their skills
and abilities. There are already research
teams working on this advanced topic.
NEW PRODUCTS–NEW
PARADIGMS
Probably the most disruptive
innovations that we might see in the
future will come from the product side.
The pairing of new products — new
paradigms can be an extremely
powerful driving factor to change the
way shoemaking is carried out. Virtually
all the revolutions and trends we have
described are in fact based on the
assumption of a ‘constant product’.
They rely on a concept of a shoe, with
all its parts and the way they are
assembled to create it, that is more than
a century old and, with only a few
sporadic enhancements, to a process
flow that was coded long ago. What if
the shoe concept as such was to be
totally rethought so that manufacturing
processes will have to change as well?
This would probably be the most
dramatic transformation that the
product, its manufacturing processes
and, potentially, the whole shoe
business may undergo.
Far fetched? It is already happening.
Business Week
March 2012 published
an article on the new Nike Flyknit
running shoe; type in flyknit on
Google and read what it says. In the
author’s words ‘the new running shoe
is spun, not sewn, reducing material,
time and labour and, moreover, the
most labour intensive part of the
footwear manufacturing process has
gone’. With it also go many shoe
machines and manufacturing steps as
well as concepts of work organisation;
an entirely new footwear concept with
a new manufacturing process and
new machines. But, in the words of
John Naisbitt: “We must learn to
balance the material wonders of
technology with the spiritual demands
of our human race.“
17
HIGH TECH, HIGH TOUCH, REVOLUTIONS, EVOLUTIONS
JULY/AUGUST 2012 | www.footwearbiz.com
Nike Flyknit
CREDIT: NIKE