Adidas Builds "Speed Factory" In Germany

Well known in Germany

Sales robots will be built next year.

The price is similar to the Asian factory products.

Chief executive Herbert Heiner opened a new Speed factory to the media in Anne Bach, in the southern part of Germany.

The striking factory covers an area of 4600 square meters, and the biggest feature is highly automated.

According to reports, Adidas's speed plant, a production unit has about 6 machines, is divided into two groups of production lines: a group of sole production, a group of other parts of the production of sports shoes.

It takes about 5 hours to complete a pair of shoes from start to production.

In Adidas's production workshop in Asia, this process takes several weeks.

The factory, which uses robots to produce sports shoes, will launch 500 pairs of test shoes in the third quarter of this year, and began large-scale production since 2017. At the same time, ADI is also preparing to set up second "speed factories" in the United States.

The factories in Germany and the United States will produce about 500 thousand pairs of sneakers annually.

Automation means the minimum number of people involved in the production process.

Once the factory is set up and put into operation, the entire factory will probably need only 160 employees.

Gerd Manz, head of Adidas technology innovation, also said: "our goal is not all automation."

In the future, it is very likely that Adidas's sneakers bought by consumers are not "Made in China" or "Made in Vietnam", but "Made in Germany".

In the report, Adidas's current CEO Hainer said that the purpose of speed factories was to increase efficiency, instead of replacing labor in a short time, and would not replace Adidas's production plant in Asia.

But it is undeniable that the rise of labor prices in Asian countries has shaken the determination of Adidas and other sports brands to stay in Asia.