The Concept Of Technology: Robots Must Be Clearly Identified As Workers Instead Of Workers.

Adidas, which touted the robot factory three years ago, was called "face". They suddenly announced that they would close the only two robot factory "Speedfactory". At the latest, the two factories will stop production in April next year. Next, the focus of Adidas's production will remain on the ordinary factories in China and Vietnam.
All along, people think that the trend of automation and intellectualization will reduce manufacturing jobs, and weaken the competitive advantage of human resources in developing countries. In the automobile manufacturing industry, the large-scale application of automation equipment has also greatly reduced the number of artificial jobs. In that case, why did Adidas's robot factory lose to Asian workers?
In 2016, Adidas opened its first robot factory, "Speedfactory", 35 miles away from the headquarters of Bavaria, Germany.
The factory has an area of about 4600 square meters, and only 160 artificial jobs are retained through the robotics LED production line, and the entire factory can produce 1500 pairs per day and the annual output exceeds 500 thousand pairs.
At that time, Adidas was very optimistic about the factory, claiming that the factory landing in Europe could be closer to local consumers, and robots could be customized quickly according to the preferences of European consumers.
The US technology media, WIRED, has visited this factory with no windows. Robots use lasers to cut knitted fabrics into various shapes and put them on the conveyor belt, and the thermoplastic polyurethane strips are precisely melted onto knitted fabrics by the next robot. Then, the workers put these knitwear on the sewing machine, sewing by sewing machine workers, and turning them into shoes upper; then, these shoes are placed in a heating container and fused with the soles; finally, the workers wear shoes and shoelaces, and a pair of shoes are born.
In all kinds of publicity, Adidas is full of praise for "Speedfactory", "unlimited adjustment", "seamless transformation", "accelerated production process", "volume optimization" and so on, and thinks that "Speedfactory" represents a trend in the future.
In 2017, Adidas set up second "Speedfactory" in Atlanta, USA, which is 2000 square meters larger than Germany, and the number of employees has dropped to 150, but the capacity remains unchanged. It is still about 500 thousand pairs each year.
Adidas even went to the United States to open a factory and even welcomed many American economists.
Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist of the progressive policy institute in Washington, said: "large-scale manufacturing has been transferred to Asia, but the emergence of robot factories can not only replace cheap foreign labor, but also make manufacturing industry return to local manufacturing and closer to local consumers."
Robot factory is "chicken ribs"
However, the "Speedfactory" cattle are blown out, and the final effect is what Adidas is also aware of.
According to Adidas's idea, "Speedfactory" can greatly shorten the R & D and production cycle, and at the same time, the products and sales of these robot factories will occupy half of Adidas's revenue in 2020. Ultimately, Adidas's goal is to build a machine factory network in the world.
However, the annual production capacity of the two robot factories is only 1 million double, and the number of shoes produced by Adidas is about 400 million pairs per year. The average output per day is over 1 million pairs. It is almost impossible to rely on the output of 1/400 to occupy 1/2's income.
In addition, Adidas's original European market is not strong enough. The sales volume of Adidas's European market in 2018 was 5 billion 885 million euros, which was 0.8% lower than that of 2017's 5 billion 932 million euros.
The robot factory did not bring Adidas growth, but increased the R & D cost of Adidas. Only these two robot factories made Adidas invest more than 35% of R & D cost.
Output is not enough and huge investment has led Adidas to retreat in robotics factory.
Reuters reported that in addition to the input output ratio, the robotics plant's technology can hardly be applied to other product lines, which may be the last straw to overtake Adidas.
The "Speedfactory" production line has a limited number of moulds, which can only produce Boots middle sole (similar to high pressure foam) running shoes, and can not produce rubber soles, such as retro Stan Smith.
In fact, as early as 2017, Adidas Ulrich Steindorf, senior director of manufacturing, said after visiting a "Speedfactory" that the shoes on the rubber bottom could not be produced by robots, because every time a new model was put on the rubber sole shoes, it was necessary to go through the design process again, even if it was possible to create new machines.
Perhaps it is still considering the cost of machinery. In the past 2 years, "Speedfactory" can only continue to produce Boots middle sole running shoes with knitted vamp, which makes the status of "Speedfactory" always very embarrassing, and ultimately it is difficult to escape the fate of being abandoned.
Not only workers in Asia
After switching off two "Speedfactory", Adidas's focus is still on Asia.
According to statistics, more than 90% of Adidas's products are produced in Asia. In China, Vietnam and other places, Adidas has more than 1 million workers, which are Adidas's real "productivity".
Back to Asia, not only because there are plenty of experienced workers here, but what is more important is that Adidas's Asia Pacific market is the thigh that it needs to hold.
Adidas's 2018 earnings report shows that the Asia Pacific market is its largest market, with sales of 7 billion 141 million euros, while the Greater China region as a key component of the Asia Pacific market has made a brilliant performance and has grown 23% year-round.
From the single quarter growth rate, before the fourth quarter of last year, Adidas in the Greater China region has achieved 11 consecutive quarter growth rate of more than 20%, while maintaining the double-digit growth in the first three quarters of this year.
Adidas's efforts to concentrate on the Asia Pacific region are indeed better than those in Europe and the Americas.
Of course, switching off two "Speedfactory" does not mean that Adidas has completely abandoned the attempt to automate intellectualization. It can only be said that robots are replaced by robots at present, and there are various deficiencies, which are temporarily unable to meet all production requirements.
Martin Shankrand, director of Adidas global operations (Martin Shankland), has reservations in her interview with us CNN. He said it would be more economical if he applied the technological advantages of Speedfactory to Asian factories.
It may not be long before Asian Adidas factories can use the technology of "Speedfactory" to produce all kinds of shoes, and not only the Boots middle sole running shoes of knitted upper.