How To Reduce The Production Period Of 18 Months To 4 Months?

If you could use a few key words to describe the production process of traditional shoes, what words would you use? In addition to the words "slow", "labor-intensive" and "low technology content", can you think of other words?

Manufacturers often need to spend 18 months to produce a pair of sneakers, which involves dozens of production steps.

However, in addition to a few manufacturers in the production process innovation, the vast majority of shoemaking enterprises manufacturing process has not changed for decades.

According to the world's clothing and shoe net, Morgan Stanley released a research report to investors in June 6th, which thoroughly studied the world's two largest manufacturer of footwear.

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The report shows that technology and automation technology are subverting traditional shoes making, and Nike and Adidas are redefining the way they manufacture and sell products.

Morgan Stanley has come to the conclusion that the shoe manufacturing industry is undergoing structural pformation, and this will bring win-win results to consumers and sports shoe brands.

The manufacturing process of sneakers is still in its early stage.

Although many innovative technologies have emerged nowadays, the application of new technologies can only be popularized only if the demand reaches a certain scale.

New technologies are mainly classified into two categories: design and production.

This is also the two major step in making shoes.

But Morgan Stanley believes that the application of new technology will enable consumers to buy personalized customized shoes at a lower price, and the manufacturing cycle of sports shoes will be greatly reduced.

Morgan Stanley's research report shows the following sketch map, which will shorten the manufacturing cycle of 18 months of shoes for 4 months.

Morgan Stanley showed us how to reduce the production cycle of 18 months to 4 months.

Design

The birth of a pair of sneakers starts with the design manuscript.

They need to provide production schematic drawings and metal molds for sole shoes before they turn the design inspiration into solid prototype.

It takes only a few weeks to process this process.

Then, the factory will produce the samples, and the samples are usually modified several times, and each time it is modified, a new sample will be reproduced.

The final version of a pair of sneakers will take about a year to determine and then put into production.

Today, virtual prototyping technology enables brands to significantly shorten the production cycle of sneakers.

For example, Nike works with DreamWorks, an animation company, without relying on the NOVA technology platform of DreamWorks to create realistic 3D stereotactic prototypes for shoes, without making solid prototypes.

The NOVA platform even supports material simulation technology, which allows Nike designers to simulate the application of different materials on shoes.

In this way, Nike can design more shoes in less time.

It is worth mentioning that the NOVA platform has been used in the production of the movie "taming Dragon Master 2".

3D printing technology is also beneficial to the rapid prototyping of sneakers, because it can save the process of processing foamed sole moulds.

Without using 3D printing technology, this process will take a month.

But now the shoe makers can print out a shoe sole prototype within a few hours.

Adidas is planning to scale up the production of 3D print soles, which will enable Adidas to print directly designed shoes instead of making prototype shoes.

Production

Morgan Stanley's research report points out that Nike and Adidas are increasing their automation input so as to further speed up the production process.

Adidas built a fully robotics "speed plant" in Germany.

Before 2023, 1/5 of the products of these two companies will be produced by automation equipment.

Of course, the benefits of new technology can not only speed up production.

For example, Nike engineers can now use robots to color the bottom of sneakers.

The process needs to be taped to the joints of different parts of shoes before splashing into other areas.

Just like painting the new house, we usually put stickers on the joints of the walls to avoid hand skiing to the next wall when painting.

The new process is not only faster, but also can print some beautiful designs which are hard to do by hand.

Both companies want to place their production near the target market.

However, almost all the products of these two companies are produced in Asia, especially in China.

But they want to produce small quantities of products quickly according to the needs of consumers.

So Adidas also built a "speed factory" in Atlanta.

It is not very realistic to relocate large quantities of products back to the US or Europe.

But producing a small number of products in areas near the market can save at least a few weeks' shipping time from Asia to Europe and America.

Great benefits

Why is this the gospel of consumers? The improvement in the design and production process of sneakers means that consumers can buy their products without waiting for too long.

Because the cost and difficulty of designing and producing a pair of single shoes are greatly reduced, consumers will soon be able to buy shoes that are customized according to their own wishes.

The report reads: "let's suppose that such a situation is that customers like the overall design style of the shoes, but he only wants to change one of them.

No problem. It's a piece of cake.

Another possibility is that the customer wants to customize a pair of shoes that fit his feet. But he is now traveling outside and wants to buy these shoes at the Foot Locker store near the hotel the next day.

It's too easy! "

Shortening the production cycle will speed up their response to the market.

This means that they will not need to produce large quantities of stock ahead of time.

Morgan Stanley estimates that because of the simplification of production processes, the new production mode will save up to 10% of the cost.

With the help of these positive factors, sportswear will soon surpass other consumer categories.

In the long run, many brands will benefit from it, including New Balance and Andemar Under Armour.

But so far, the most profitable companies are Nike and Adidas.

More interesting reports, please pay attention to the world clothing shoes and hats net.