Footwear Manufacturing Research Articles

Circular economy strategies: a fuzzy DEMATEL decision framework for the fast fashion footwear manufacture

The fast fashion industry significantly impedes sustainability by its rapid production cycles, low-cost products, and heavy carbon footprint. Nowadays, circular economy (CE) has become an interesting concept, which follows the “take-make-dispose” model and allows products, materials, and resources to be in use as long as possible. There is a paucity of research in the identification of circular economy strategies (CES) and mapping them based on their interrelationships, which is very important from a managerial perspective. In this vein, this study identifies nine CES and analyzes their causal relationships using the Fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method in the context of fast fashion footwear manufacture. The key contributions include providing actionable insights for implementing CE practices, enhancing the sustainability of the footwear industry, and offering a strategic roadmap for industry stakeholders. The results and implications of this study will guide footwear industry decision-makers in making a strategic map considering the cause-and-effect interrelationships among the CES for implementing CE business practices in the footwear industry.

Development of a footwear sizing system for diabetic feet

The number of diabetic patients is increasing rapidly who have vulnerable feet and might be easily affected by different adversities. Since there is no available footwear sizing system for diabetic patients, manufacturers produce diabetic footwear of different sizes and fittings based on other available footwear sizing systems, which may result in inappropriate fitting. To get footwear with proper fittings, diabetic patients may go for customized or bespoke footwear based on their foot conditions, which is very costly. This study attempts to explore the foot complications of diabetic patients and categorize their feet to create a new sizing system using foot measurements from 102 male diabetic patients based on three dimensions of human feet, namely foot length, ball girth, and instep circumference. K-means data clustering is followed to categorize the data into three broad groups, namely small, medium, and large groups for footwear sizing. The developed footwear sizing system uses a sizing interval of 8 mm and a fitting interval of 6 mm. This study suggests a total of 11 sizes along with 24 different fittings for the footwear manufacturers for producing diabetic footwear. This newly developed footwear sizing system has a total of 79.41 % coverage where there are 10, 10, and 4 fittings in the small, medium, and large groups, respectively. The proposed footwear sizing system can help footwear manufacturers understand the proper size and fit of diabetic patients’ feet so that they can make appropriate footwear for diabetic patients economically.

A STUDY ON SUPPLIER EVALUATION PROCESS IN FOOTWEAR MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

This study introduces an innovative supplier evaluation approach for footwear manufacturing by integrating the SCOR 4.0 model with machine learning techniques. The SCOR 4.0 model, combined with the Best Worst Method (BWM), provides a structured framework for evaluating suppliers across various dimensions. A Random Forest (RF) machine learning model is then used to classify and rank suppliers based on performance ratings. The results show that the RF algorithm effectively identifies suitable suppliers, with lower rejection scores indicating superior performance. This integration enhances supplier evaluation processes and offers valuable insights for supply chain management in the footwear industry. Key Words: Supplier evaluation, SCOR 4.0 model, Best-worst method (BWM), Random Forest (RF), Supplier Rejection score

SUSTAINABLE FOOTWEAR DESIGN: BALANCING COMFORT, FUNCTIONALITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the footwear industry, with consumers demanding products that are not only comfortable and functional but also environmentally friendly. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of sustainable footwear design, focusing on the balance between comfort, functionality, and environmental impact. The first part of the paper examines the current state of the footwear industry, highlighting the environmental issues associated with traditional footwear manufacturing processes and materials. It then discusses the growing interest in sustainable footwear design and the need for innovative solutions to reduce the industry's environmental footprint. Next, the paper explores various aspects of sustainable footwear design, including material selection, manufacturing processes, and product life cycle. It discusses the importance of using eco-friendly materials such as recycled plastics, organic cotton, and sustainable leather alternatives, as well as the benefits of incorporating sustainable practices into the design process. The paper also considers the challenges of balancing sustainability with comfort and functionality. It discusses the importance of designing footwear that meets the needs of consumers while also minimizing environmental impact, highlighting the role of innovative design and technology in achieving this balance. Keyword: sustainable footwear design, comfort, functionality, environmental impact, eco-friendly materials, innovation

A knitted smart sneaker system based on piezoresistive strain sensing for stride counting

Currently, smart shoes are not as common as other wearable devices such as fitness trackers or smartwatches. However, with the continuous improvement in sensor and IOT technologies, it is expected that shoes with smart capabilities will catch up with the other popular wearables. The emergence of 3D knitting and its subsequent application in footwear manufacture has revolutionized the shoe manufacturing process. The use of knitwear allows for shoe parts such as the upper or the sole (insole, Strobel sole, midsole and/or outer sole) to be tailored with specific areas having different characteristics and providing different functions with low production effort. This study presents the design and manufacture of a knitted smart sneaker for cadence mensuration. The specified part of the sneaker is knitted with silverplated polyester yarn to serve as a strain sensor. During the weight-bearing and release phases of the foot, while walking, this strain sensor is stressed and relaxed by this oscillatory phenomenon thus allowing footstep data to be measured. Stride estimate tests were carried out and the results established that strides taken by a user can accurately be correlated to the readings of the system. This study is the first to develop a smart shoe-sensing system where the sensor is inherently embedded within the shoe upper.

Improved textile-vamp punching points location using CNN and priori regional template matching in the footwear industry

The accurate and efficient positioning of punching points on textile-vamps is critical for successful footwear manufacturing. Manual methods often lead to errors, increased labor costs, and reduced efficiency. To address these challenges, this paper takes a full account of punching point layout regularity in the vamp and proposes an approach for locating punching points using priori regional template matching and convolutional neural network. Least-squares ellipse fitting is used for coordinate system establishment based on a fixed pattern of 3D additive on the vamp. This facilitates the description of the placement and orientation of the vamp. Then, the prior region and template images are extracted and recorded in accordance with the relative positional relationship between punching points and the vamp. This can limit the template search to designated regions and improve the speed and accuracy of punching point location. Leveraging the determined coordinates system, the extracted prior regions universally applicable to vamps in any placement and orientation. To automatize the adjustment of punching point matching strategies, a textile-vamp classification CNN model is trained to distinguish between different vamp types. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on various vamp types and placement, achieving a high accuracy rate of 98%. Therefore, this research offers a promising solution for practical applications in the footwear industry, providing accurate and rapid textile-vamp punching point location.

Manufacturing Processes in the Footwear Industry: A Study of Mechanized Cement Lasting Process

In the footwear manufacturing system, the upper parts of the shoe and bottom parts of the shoes are attached with the help of adhesive or stitched with the help of thread. In the earlier time shoes were made from bark, twine and other natural man made materials. 5000 year ago leather has come as natural material to produce the footwear. Which is comes in the form of leather hide. Handmade shoes are very unique to wear because they conform to the anatomy of the foot. Firstly, we take the structure line of man's foot to measure the foot structure, according to which we make the shoe last, while the customer chooses the size, material and design of the shoe. After the measurement process shoe were made by hand. The manual operations for the upper parts led to a large variability in processing times, resulting in higher work-in-process inventory. Nowadays the efficient mechanized system is available, which is more powerful to produce the goods at given time period, the efficiently of the equipment and machinery is very high. In the mechanized cement lasting process the upper part of the shoes stuck with the outsole with the help of adhesive by machinery, in which construction the different types of shoe making machineries are involved. The purpose of this paper is to review the areas where the current footwear manufacturing system can significantly affect the way of footwear sector is practiced, and also we will discuss the implementation.

Optimizing Footwear Manufacturing Through Defect Analysis and Spare Parts Optimization

This study investigates the causes of defects in the production line of inlay soles in footwear manufacturing, focusing on the impact of malfunctioning machine spare parts. Using Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), critical machines—splitting, cutting, and moulding—are identified, along with their associated spare parts influencing defect occurrence. Process FMEA (PFMEA) prioritizes actions based on discussions with maintenance managers and quality staff. Results highlight top spare parts affecting defects, such as Fertinak, grinding stone, and V-belt for the splitting machine; hydraulic motor, hydraulic seal, and hydraulic filter for the cutting machine; and Solid State Relay, Thermocouple, and Heater for the moulding machine. These findings underscore the importance of maintaining machine performance and addressing spare part malfunctions to enhance product quality and operational efficiency in footwear manufacturing, providing actionable insights for industry practitioners. Hightligh: Critical Machines Identified: Splitting, cutting, and moulding machines analyzed for defect occurrence. Spare Parts Influence: Fertinak, Solid State Relay impact defect occurrence. Practical Industry Insights: Strategies for improving product quality and efficiency highlighted. Keywords: Defect analysis, Footwear manufacturing, Spare parts, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Product quality.

Development of an Integrated Robotic Workcell for Automated Bonding in Footwear Manufacturing

Development of an Integrated Robotic Workcell for Automated Bonding in Footwear Manufacturing

Adapting lean manufacturing principles to the footwear industry: Kaizen, Kanban or a Mix?

This study presents the overview of Kaizen and Kanban implementation, as lean principles and highlights the achievements realised from deployment of the integrated initiatives for sustainable performance of organisations. Lean manufacturing includes various principles and techniques, with the same main goal: to banish waste and non-value-added activities at every production or service process and enhance customer satisfaction. To stay competitive, many Indian footwear manufacturers have sought to optimise their manufacturing processes to readily compete with overseas manufacturers. Therefore, this work highlights the barriers, pathways and potential innovations for sustainable Kaizen and Kanban implementation in organisations. It further brings out the integrated concept of Kaizen and Kanban, and the requirements for its holistic implementation. Methods such as process observations, interviews, plant tours and case studies were used for the investigation. The significant contributions through Kaizen and Kanban initiatives in the organisation, including just-in-time improvements, quality, inventory reduction, optimisation, teamwork and flexibility for sustained organisational development are elucidated and juxtaposed with existing literature. It pivots the approach advised by the various researchers, practitioners and censoriously appraises the desire for Kaizen and Kanban programmes in the organisation. Significantly, this study is valuable to researchers, project and quality managers, development professionals and operations managers in various organisations, especially the footwear industry.

O caso Melissa: desafios de sustentabilidade para a expansão internacional de uma marca brasileira de sandálias plásticas

Abstract The Melissa sandals division is a subsidiary of Grendene, a Brazilian footwear manufacturer with over 40 years experience in the market. It is internationally recognized for its plastic footwear and accessories. In the last few years, the brand has been facing new challenges regarding the building of a more sustainable identity for its products and trying to implement reverse logistics initiatives in foreign markets. In this context, the case puts the reader in the role of Melinda Voguel, the executive director of Melissa Sandals, to reflect on a sustainability plan that will allow the brand a greater presence in international markets. The case was designed for undergraduate and graduate students of Business Administration, Economics, and Logistics who want to discuss topics such as brand sustainability, international marketing and branding, reverse logistics, and circular economy.

USULAN PERBAIKAN LAYOUT LANTAI PRODUKSI PT XYZ MENGGUNAKAN METODE ALGORITMA BLOCPLAN DAN ALGORITMA CORELAP

PT XYZ is a company that engaged in the footwear manufacturing industry. In the production process, one of tool that required is cutting dies to form the desired designs or patterns. The production process that uses cutting dies is carried out in the moldshop section. Cutting dies are made from sheet plates that are cut to size, then processed to form a pattern or design that will be used in the main production section. Several departments were placed not in accordance with the production process flow, causing delays in the delivery of cutting dies. This also causes longer material handling time and there is irregular material flow such as cross material flow and alternating flow which also results in queuing processes. For this problem, it is necessary to design a layout to produce a shorter total distance and better production flow using the BLOCPLAN Algorithm and CORELAP Algorithm methods. From the design results, the proposed layout of the BLOCPLAN Algorithm was obtained which was able to produce a total distance of 2385.5 meters per day, whereas if using the CORELAP Algorithm it was 1514.63 meters per day. Therefore, it is recommended to use the layout from the CORELAP Algorithm calculation so that it can produce an efficiency of 20.60%.

The influence of transactional leadership style on employees' innovation ability

Purpose: This study delves into two mainland Chinese footwear manufacturing companies to understand the link between transactional leadership and employee creativity, focusing on the mediating role of psychological empowerment. Design/Methodology/Approach: Employing descriptive statistical analysis, reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis, the study collected 576 valid questionnaires. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 25 and Analysis of Moment Structures statistical software. Findings: Results confirm that psychological empowerment positively influences employee creativity. Transactional leadership also has a significant positive impact. Notably, psychological empowerment partially mediates the relationship between transactional leadership and creativity. Conclusions: Both transactional leadership and psychological empowerment are key factors in enhancing employee creativity, particularly in the two Chinese private footwear companies studied. Research Limitations: The research focuses on large and medium-sized firms from two Chinese regions, excluding smaller entities. Several potential influencing factors for creativity still need to be addressed. Practical Implications: Business leaders are advised to possess professional, solid skills, ensure fair treatment of employees, and provide appropriate rewards. Such practices can bolster team cohesion, spur innovation, and support sustainable enterprise growth. Contribution to literature: This work underscores the influence of psychological empowerment and transactional leadership on creativity, shedding light on the former's mediating role. The findings enrich the literature and offer a foundation for future research in similar domains.

Reverse Logistics and Performance of Footwear Manufacturing Firms in Kenya.

Reverse Logistics and Performance of Footwear Manufacturing Firms in Kenya.

Analysis of machine repair time prediction using machine learning at one of leading footwear manufacturers in Indonesia

<p>Machine breakdowns in the production line mostly finish in more than 18<br />minutes, since the machine that needs repair more time is done on the<br />production line, not in the machine warehouse. Historical machine<br />breakdown data is digitally recorded through the Andon system, but it is still<br />not being used adequately to aid decision-making. This research introduces<br />an analysis of historical machine breakdown data to provide predictions of<br />repair time intervals with a focus on finding the best algorithm accuracy.<br />The research method uses machine learning techniques with a classification<br />model. There are five algorithms used: logistic regression (LR), naive bayes<br />(NB), k-nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), and<br />random forest (RF). The results of this study prove that historical machine<br />breakdown data can be optimized to predict machine repair time intervals in<br />the production line. The accuracy of LR algorithm is slightly better than the<br />other algorithms. Based on the receiver operating characteristic–area under<br />curve (ROC-AUC) performance evaluation metric, the quality value of the<br />accuracy of LR model is satisfied with a percentage of 69% with a<br />difference of 0.5% between the train and test data.</p>

Occupational Exposure of Footwear Roughing Dust during Footwear Manufacturing Process

Footwear roughing dust (FRD) is generated from roughing operations involved in footwear manufacturing. The dust is created by the friction of emery paper against the grain surface of finished leather. FRD coming from finished leather is likely to contain chromium, which is widely used for leather processing. Generally, chromium is found in two forms in the leather industry, namely Cr (III) and Cr (VI), of which the latter has an evident and adverse effect on human health. This study aims to identify the major effects of FRD on workers’ health and to find out the correlation with the factors influencing those adverse health effects. In this study, a survey among 30 roughing operators from eight footwear factories in Bangladesh was conducted. The major health effects of FRD are eye irritation, skin itching, chest pain, coughing, and fatigue. This study constructed three hypotheses to investigate whether human health is affected by FRD with working experience, the age of workers, and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). The results showed that working experience and use of PPE have distinct influences on the health effects caused by FRD, whereas workers’ age has no impact on their health effects. Finally, some recommendations are formulated to prevent or mitigate workers’ adverse health effects in order to ensure a better working environment in the footwear industry.

Traction performance modeling of worn footwear with perpendicular treads

ABSTRACT The traction performance of the footwear deteriorates due to outsole wear which further increases the risk of slip and fall related accidents. To date, several studies have tested footwear tractions across several slippery conditions but only a few studies have attempted to assess their performance considering worn shoes. In this work, nine outsoles, with systematically modified tread geometries, were investigated, to study the effects of tread patterns in new and worn conditions on traction, across common slippery conditions. The outsoles were progressively worn in three wear cycles. Outsoles with increased worn regions generated lower friction and higher fluid pressures, indicating increased slipping risks. Also, diversion of fluid flow due to large worn regions produced high fluid accumulations at other locations over the outsoles. The methods and results are anticipated to help footwear manufacturers with the strategic design of tread patterns that can provide improved friction even when completely worn.

On sustainable design and manufacturing for the footwear industry – Towards circular manufacturing

The global fashion industry is facing carbon footprint issues, but technological innovations are helping to improve its performance and environmental efficiency in terms of footwear manufacturing. This paper explores how Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), Design for Assembly (DfA), and Design for Disassembly (DfD) strategies, along with Additive Manufacturing's (AM) capability to produce intricate parts, can contribute to the fashion industry's shift towards a Circular Manufacturing model. The focus is on footwear manufacturing and its carbon footprint issues. The proposed additively manufactured shoe design utilizes Polyamide 12 and Thermoplastic polyurethane as feedstock, featuring a glueless mechanical assembly system based on a snapfit. Notably, the upper part of the shoe incorporates a variable lattice structure to ensure flexibility in different areas. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) demonstrates that the snapfit assembly exceeds the industry standard's minimum disassembly force requirement. Additionally, an optimization algorithm for the variable lattice structure results in a 34% mass reduction while maintaining the desired Young's modulus in each shoe zone. This design approach aligns with the footwear industry's sustainability goals, aiming to reduce environmental impact and enhance product durability. The study successfully developed a strategy to implement AM for sustainable shoe fabrication.

ESTIMATION AND COMPARISON OF MASSTIGE VALUE OF RENOWNED FOOTWEAR BRANDS USING MMS SCALE

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to assess and compare the masstige value of popular footwear brands, namely Bata, Adidas, Nike, and Puma, using the Masstige Mean Score Scale (MMSS) developed by Paul (2015). The study aims to determine which brand has successfully established a "top-of-mind" position based on mass prestige and the effectiveness of their masstige marketing strategy. Additionally, the paper examines the differences in masstige perception based on age, income, and gender among consumers. The research design involves the collection of primary data through questionnaires distributed to 205 Millennials and Generation Z consumers residing in different Indian states. The findings reveal that Adidas, a German brand, scores the highest in masstige value compared to Puma, Nike, and Bata. In addition, gender, income, and age significantly influence brand masstige, brand perception, and the propensity to pay premium prices for footwear brands. Therefore, the study provides valuable insights for footwear manufacturers to devise effective marketing strategies and tactics to enhance their sales in the Indian market.

Assessing the social sustainability impact on suppliers: the role of global value chains governance strategies.

Stakeholder awareness of social sustainability issues is growing, but few recognize what motivates companies to implement social sustainability in their supply chain management or return on investment in developing countries, where cultural norms might vary widely. We address this question by broadening stakeholder and institutional perspectives to investigate how customers, sustainability culture, management, and external stakeholders influence companies' acceptance of social sustainability in their supply chains. We collected information on 356 apparel and footwear manufacturers from 5 South Asian countries that sell to customers in Western Europe and North America. Our findings highlight the interdependence of organizational and institutional structures and define the boundaries of GVC governance mechanisms within a social sustainability framework. Our research shows that the success of examining social sustainability interventions applied by leading firms or the effects of collaboration-based global value chains depend on the supplier's local institutional framework. Social sustainability organizational practices influence supplier perceptions and responses to key corporate needs in the supplier's country. We demonstrate that GVC governance models are most conducive to suppliers' social sustainability implementation when contextualized with the local institutional needs for social sustainability in the supplier's country.