Adidas'S Production Plan Early Next Year

At the beginning of next year, a German factory, which relies mainly on robots, will take the lead.

Production of 500 pairs

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The company seeks to reduce labor costs and speed up product distribution.

Most of Adidas's production has moved from Europe to Asia, relying on about 1000000 workers from the foundries (mainly in China and Vietnam) to produce products.

However, the company now wants to turn production back to its nearest main market to cater for faster distribution of new market demand and to cope with rising labor costs and higher shipping costs in Asia.

The new "Speedfactory" factory is located near Ansbacher, Adidas headquarters in Bavaria. It will start producing a robot running shoes in the first half of 2016.

This running shoe combines machine woven vampers and "Boost" soles made of polyurethane foam developed by BASF.

Adidas CEO Herbert HerbertHainer said, "automation, decentralization and flexible manufacturing processes enable us to narrow the gap between the market and our consumers."

We are also investing heavily in new manufacturing methods.

But it has not yet decided when to launch more production in the United States.

Adidas plans to launch mass production in the near future, and will build a global network of similar factories.

However, it expects that those factories will supplement existing suppliers instead of replacing them.

The company is seeking sustained and rapid growth.

Adidas's current annual output of shoes, clothes and accessories is about 600 million.

Its plan is to increase the figure by nearly half by 2020.

The assembly process of the new plant will still be manual, and about 10 people will be tested at the trial stage.

However, Adidas is striving for full automation.

Gerd Mantz, head of Adidas technology innovation, said that 74% of Adidas's current product sales came from less than a year's product launch, which is growing. GerdManz

"Our consumers have higher requirements for products, and customization for markets and individuals will become the norm."

Adidas's goal also includes developing machines that can produce customized shoes.

In addition, the company is seeking to remove machine tools that need to be prepared for a long time from the manufacturing process.

It has been using 3D printing technology to create futuristic soles made of netted fibers.

In October, Adidas reached a cooperation agreement with Manz, a German engineering group. It will work hand in hand to develop a new automated production technology to carry out all digital research in all fields including design and manufacture.

Other partners of the company's Speedfactory project include JohnsonControls, robotics assembly company KSLKeilmann, and scientists from Technical University of Munich and Aachen University in Germany.