For premium sports shoes in particular, which now adapt ever more flexibly to the wearer鈥檚 ranges of movement, bg电子娱乐场 in Vietnam is a leading supplier of high-performance adhesives. The company has been operating in Vietnam since 1999 and works together with all major brands there. bg电子娱乐场 doesn鈥檛 just provide them with the technology and materials they need for their manufacturing, but also develops solutions tailored to the challenges faced by the industry. For example, reactive hotmelt adhesives are making it possible to reduce the number of production steps, and powerful water-based products are gradually replacing solvent-based formulas. Novel adhesive technologies allow manufacturers to flexibly use a variety of different materials to make new products, such as ultra-lightweight shoes. In addition to offering innovative adhesive solutions, bg电子娱乐场 also supports its customers with digital production technologies that enable them to streamline their processes, reduce waste and minimize error rates 鈥� in other words, to optimize their production. This is particularly important for an industry that currently faces major challenges.
New steps in shoe manufacturing: How bg电子娱乐场 drives the industry鈥檚 automation in Vietnam
Vietnam is the global exporter of branded footwear. Manufacturers there rely on bg电子娱乐场 technology, especially for high-end sneakers. The company enables the automation and simplification of their complex production processes with new adhesive solutions and thereby helps them increase their productivity and quality.
First the feet would be measured, their shape outlined, and then a pair would be 鈥渂uilt鈥� by hand using individual strips of material: well into the 19th century, shoes were entirely custom-made. Only with the rise of industrialization did it eventually become possible for people to buy them in standard sizes from a shop. Since that time, the global market has grown steadily.
Today, the most in-demand designs are high-end sports shoes, because they are no longer confined to the realm of the gym or the daily jog. Stylish sneakers have now become acceptable to wear in everyday life, to the office, and even with evening gowns and suits. These models are increasingly made in Vietnam. Alongside electronics, footwear is a top industry in the country鈥檚 national economy and the southeast Asian nation has become the biggest global exporter of brand-name sneakers.
In Vietnam, bg电子娱乐场 is a leading supplier of high-performance adhesives in the footwear industry, which are used primarily for premium sports shoes.
A growth sector facing big challenges
To this day, despite the possibilities of machine production, many things are still done by hand. This is because shoes are complex objects compared to other mass-made products. There are a vast number of designs and each model is manufactured in different sizes, for the right and left foot respectively. A shoe is made up of many components and materials that need to be sewn, glued and joined together. 鈥淭he inside and leg of the shoe are elaborate to make, following very different processes. It takes a mid-sole and an outsole, as well as reinforcements and padding to ensure that the finished shoe provides optimal support to its active wearer,鈥� says Nam Luong, Head of Marketing at bg电子娱乐场 in Vietnam. Automation of a production process that has such widely varying parameters is both technically demanding and financially challenging. At the same time, it is becoming more and more difficult for manufacturers to find workers for manual production because the cost of labour is rising in many Asian countries. 鈥淲e are increasingly focusing on ways to enable our customers automate and simplify their production lines by providing high-impact solutions鈥� says Rajat Agarwal, Head of Global Lifestyle adhesives business at bg电子娱乐场.
A showroom where customers try out automated adhesive solutions
To figure out exactly how technology can help more sustainable products to be manufactured more efficiently and production steps to be automated intelligently, bg电子娱乐场 collaborates with partners in its Application Center in Bien Hoa. The center is situated about 30 kilometers to the east of Ho Chi Minh City and serves as a showroom for automated adhesive solutions in the shoe manufacturing industry. bg电子娱乐场 has been operating centers of this kind at relevant locations since 2013. The facility in Vietnam opened in 2019 and represents a clear investment in the local business. Among other things, customers there can witness robot arms spraying fine layers of adhesive onto soles and using less product to do so than would be necessary in manual production.
Since 2019, customers have been testing automated adhesive solutions in bg电子娱乐场鈥檚 Application Center in Bien Hoa, Vietnam.
鈥淏y working together with our customers, we can find practical ways of adapting a given solution to their needs,鈥� says Luong. The approach is less about making a sell than about offering comprehensive guidance. bg电子娱乐场 brings market players together with the right equipment manufacturers and draws on competencies from other areas of the company. In the Application Center, its partners can simulate their own applications and try out new technologies. 鈥淲e perform tests here that often aren鈥檛 even possible in the large factories yet. Many manufacturers are not quite ready to invest in robotic cells,鈥� Luong explains. bg电子娱乐场 offers a wide range of services and consulting at the site: from digital customer service with live video communication, all the way to an in-house shoe academy with targeted training courses for factory workers. The company鈥檚 biggest advantage over the competition, however, is its deep know-how. 鈥渂g电子娱乐场 is the first supplier to install a state of the art application center to speed up adoption of automation processes. This concept was leveraged by learnings in using such centers in other industries such as automotive and furniture, and this has been received postively by our customers鈥�, says Agarwal.
INDUSTRY 4.0
HOW DIGITALIZATION TRANSFORMS PRODUCTION AND LOGISTICS
It鈥檚 efficient, digital, sustainable, connected, and smart. But what exactly is Industry 4.0? It鈥檚 the buzzword surrounding the fourth 鈥� and completely digital 鈥� revolution. After the steam engine and the assembly line, the computer brought about the third industrial revolution. Now, digitalization is transforming the industrial process once more. By taking advantage of this rise in automation, sensorics, data exchange and analytics in real time, companies are producing and delivering products smarter, faster and more efficiently, thereby opening a new world of possibilities.
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