WHY ROBOTS TAKE OVER THE APPAREL PRODUCTION?
First large scale shoe robot factory unveiled: Adidas will use machines in Germany instead of humans in Asia to make shoes
Adidas, the German maker of sportswear, has announced it will start marketing its first series of shoes manufactured by robots in Germany from 2017. More than 20 years after Adidas ceased production activities in Germany and moved them to Asia, Adidas unveiled the group’s new prototype “Speedfactory” in Germany. As of this year, the factory will begin large-scale production. What's more, Adidas will also open a second Speedfactory in the U.S. in 2017, followed by more in Western Europe. According to the company, the German and American plants will in the "mid-term" each scale up to producing half a million pair of shoes per year.
Does this pose a threat to Adidas's traditional manufacturing base in China, Indonesia and Vietnam? After all, labor in the region is becoming less cheap these days, and manufacturers are increasingly turning to robots. The current model in the apparel industry is very much based on sourcing products from countries where consumers are typically not based. In the longer term Adidas could even produce the shirts of Germany’s national football team in its home country. The shoes made in Germany would sell at a similar price to those produced in Asia, where Adidas employs around one million workers. Arch-rival Nike is also developing its robot-operated factory.
This development in the shoe area is just the beginning and will be leveraged to the apparel industry as well.
Adidas recently unveiled the first silhouette produced by its Speedfactory facility, the Futurecraft M.F.G. (or Made for Germany)
Put aside for a moment how moving jobs back to a country with high costs gives companies an incentive to automate. There's a bigger issue: After displacing western manufacturing workers, robots are poised to do the same in developing economies, too. It will be hard to re-shore jobs that no longer exist. It took 50 years for the world to install the first million industrial robots. The next million will take only eight. Importantly, much of the recent growth happened in particular in China, which has an aging population and where wages have risen.
A Kingdom of Robots
China is installing more industrial robots than any other country in the world:
In some respects that’s a good thing, of course. Working on a production line is monotonous, and sometimes dangerous. However, building a large manufacturing sector has traditionally been the path emerging economies have taken to raise living standards. Now, robots and other types of automation are a threat to that development model. The United Nations warned two-third of jobs in developing countries are at risk. Add to this the impact of 3D printing, digitalization (includes Artificial Intelligence - AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Many of the jobs done in developing countries can be automated:
Room for Growth - in China
China has a low concentration of robots relative to the size of its industrial workforce:
Why might it happen?
Back when the western middle class flourished after World War II, factory automation was expensive. Robots were limited to only a few sectors - mainly the auto industry - and those automatons weren’t that sophisticated. Wages rose thanks to improved productivity, but workers weren’t completely made redundant by the machines. Poorer countries in Asia or Africa probably won't be that lucky. Today's robots are far more capable, are being deployed in a wider range of industries, and are cheaper too. That leaves less room for wages to rise before humans are priced out of the labor market. More low-cost automation also means manufacturing can be re-shored to developed economies.
Cost of an Industrial Robot: €/$ 5 an hour
German robot maker Kuka, acquired last year by China’s Midea, estimates a typical industrial robot costs about 5 euros an hour. Manufacturers spend 50 euros an hour to employ someone in Germany and about 10 euros an hour in China. Rather than seek out an even cheaper source of labor elsewhere - in another emerging Asian economy, say - Chinese manufacturers are choosing to install more robots, especially for more complex tasks. China isn't getting rid of the work, just the workers.
If robots are the future of work, where do humans fit in?
That could be one reason manufacturing employment has already peaked in many emerging economies, and it’s been happening at a quite a low percentage of total employment and at an earlier stage of economic development. Taken together, it's possible robots end up exacerbating inequality in low income countries. We’ll have to deal with the consequences: few manufacturing jobs are coming back to western countries and not many will be created elsewhere.
And of course the fashion industry will be affected by this development hugely, to get an idea, read this article: Is This Sewing Robot The Future Of Fashion?
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If you liked this article you might enjoy my other articles, below:
- WHY CONSUMERS DON'T BUY MORE SUSTAINABLE FASHION?
- WHY BLOCKCHAIN IS DISRUPTING FASHION?
- WHY FASHION AND INSTAGRAM ARE #THENEWBLACK?
- WHY CLOTHES WILL BE SMART?
- WHY WE WILL 3D PRINT OUR OWN CLOTHES?
Interested in more thought provoking sustainability news relevant to the fashion, apparel, and textile industries? #BeyondSustainableFashion
Great Post!!! Inspite of what all the naysayers will say for now, this will greatly enhance the quality and if scaled up properly will reduce the Re-Work and Manufacturing Costs. As an Apparel Buyer, I think we also share a responsibility for the workers in emerging markets like Bangladesh and China, who are made to work in Dark factories and get paid almost nothing for their hardwork. This is an opportunity to Skill up those people.
Consultant, MBA
6yWe will have all these robots producing everything but no one will be able to afford them as no one will have a job - jokes. There are just new jobs emerging and people will need to be reskilled in different areas to take advantage of those emerging trends.
President of Antonick Interiors Inc.
6yHow can we complain if we're running out of work (Robots are taking over )
East Kent Supporter
6yThank you Susanna. A great read and of interest to anyone involved in manufacturing. Any Premier League football manager would like to emphasize the positives. It reminds me of the story of two shoe salesmen who visited the same third world country. One reported back to head office: "No-one here wears shoes. No business. Will take the next plane home." The other telexed: "Fantastic market here for our products. Back in ten days with ten new agency agreements". The inexorable growth of robotics creates significant opportunities for sales and servicing. Properly functioning educational systems should stimulate interest and funding in secondary and tertiary institutions to train the engineers to design and maintain the products in this sunrise sector. Manufacturers who shun technological advances that reduce manufacturing costs are inevitably at a disadvantage to competitors who embrace purposeful change. In common with most of the European Union, successive UK governments have loaded costs onto employers. Pensions, maternity & paternity benefits, restricted working hours, minimum wages, National Insurance, apprenticeship levy, quarterly tax returns to HMRC and so on are now so onerous that even the most socially responsible employer must wonder if employing an extra member of staff is going to be of benefit. The answer is of course to embrace new technology with enthusiasm to ensure that your market projections take account of the latest information available and to keep a sharp eye on competitors and best practice worldwide. There may be some in the heritage industry who feel their future is best served by recalling past glories and good luck to them. But that does not mean that we should bemoan everything that has happened since the Relief of Mafeking. It is worth recalling that Lord Byron and Karl Marx were both in sympathy with the Luddites. It didn’t do either of them much good in the long term. Byromania is rare these days outside Greece and North Korea is the only remaining Communist state where the means of production are wholly owned by the government. From the point of view of stimulating our national economy, it is surely those who reject new technology who are ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’.
General Manager
6yMr. Basheer, we shared this sentiments one year ago.