High Speed Shoe Factory – A New Footwear Factory Model

The footwear industry is traditionally characterized by production units consisting of sections physically separated from each other and with autonomous organizational and management processes. This type of organization creates areas of intermediate stocks, large production lead times, excess of materials and product handling, thus long delivery times. High Speed Shoe Factory project developed and implemented a new model of footwear factory for quick response, able to produce pair-to-pair, in order to satisfy internet sales, small orders and quick replacements. The shoe production was designed in a logic of a “single section” with high flexibility and materialised by developing and implementing new agile and reliable technological solutions, including an interactive online shop, a new multi tool cutting system and an integrated logistics flexible production system, which crosses in a single step, the traditional productive sections of cutting, sewing, assembling and finishing.