In January, Adidas took a big leap into the future by opening it’s first ‘Speedfactory’. The Speedfactory concept is simple, move production away from South East Asian countries where employee’s are paid little, often young and inexperienced and base it around ‘Key Cities’. They plan to do this in the form of robotic manufacturing overseen by a team of engineers opposed to tens of thousands of Chinese and Vietnamese employee’s working in production lines.
With SPEEDFACTORY, we are challenging conventions and disrupting the status quo of our industry.
'The consumers of today live in a constantly changing world. This shapes their behaviour and expectations. They demand newness and immediacy without compromise. SPEEDFACTORY will allow us to fulfil the consumer’s demand for speed, aesthetics and performance better than ever before and better than anyone else.' – GERD MANZ, VICE PRESIDENT TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION.
http://www.thexchng.net/adidas-set-to-open-usa-robotic-manufacturing-factory-in-2017/
Yesterday, reputable Oregon based Oregon Live posted the announcement that Adidas are on track to opening their second Speedfactory mid 2017 in the USA after the success of the first trial factory in Germany. Adidas spokeswoman Katje Schreiber neither confirming or denying that the factory will be based in Portland, Oregon – the current home to Adidas’ Headquarters. The US Speedfactory will be the first made for commercial production and will be manned by a team of 160, mostly engineers who will coordinate everything from production to distribution, all falling perfectly into Adidas’ 2020 strategic business plan.
What this means for consumers is that the brand with the three stripes will be able to stay on top of current trends by speeding up the whole process from design – distribution. Once launched, the Speedfactory’s are (currently) expected to produce 1 million pairs a year, less than 1% of Adidas’ annual footwear production.
Thanks for reading Steem!