New Balance, Robotexile, sewts: end-of-arm tooling is critical

A joint video by the two German textile specialists Robotextile (known to want to bring textile manufacturing home) and sewts (can grip towels in laundries very well) shows how important the right gripper is. The short video shows what is meant (thanks to Florian Palatini).

Can robots produce shoes in large quantities?r?

New Balance, the well-known sneaker manufacturer, is now facing a similar challenge. In the new factory in Methuen (USA), the level of automation is to be increased by means of robotics. The video below shows how complex the production of a shoe is. New Balance currently manufactures 4 million pairs of shoes per year in its USA factories, more or less by hand. However, spread over many models and sizes. The company has recognized the signs of the times and set up its own robotics and automation working group. The question is how shoes can be manufactured automatically.

Objective

As Robotics 24/7 reports, the new robotics team will focus on two main areas:

• Investment in robotic systems that can make the shoes themselves
• Investment in robotic systems that can be used for material handling tasks

New Balance has decided to explore these technologies now because there is a growing demand for automation in the face of "hiring and labor challenges [and] supply chain uncertainty." The U.S. is suffering from the same workforce shortage we are.

Shoe materials are a challenge for robots

New Balance's innovation team has found that implementing robots into its manufacturing process presents challenges. Robotic arms often have difficulty manipulating the materials used to make shoes, for example. "They're porous. They're flexible. They're not deterministic," said Mendelowitz, the project leader. "These kinds of things are hard for robots to pick up, so we spent a lot of time trying to understand how to pick up and manipulate these kinds of objects and still know where they are in space."

Another challenge for robots is dealing with the various SKUs of products and the many steps in the production process. Mendelowitz mentioned that robots have had problems in the sewing process. The team has also spent time understanding fixturing and exploring different ways to place robots within the production line to optimize production.

Still early project phase with many questions

Since the group is still in the early process of system integration, Mendelowitz said she asked some basic questions to help them determine the best pieces of equipment for a particular job. "Questions like, 'What kind of robotic arm do we want to use? What kind of camera do we want? What inspection software do we want?'" New Balance doesn't just look outside its facilities for technology; it also develops its own in-house. Mendelowitz mentioned that the company is in the process of developing its own end-of-arm tooling. Robotextile and sewts have already done this (see above).

One thing is certain: If this succeeds, completely new options would be conceivable. The key words are flexibility and pricing. In addition, the risk of overproduction would be massively reduced. From my consulting work, I am currently familiar with this stopgap: ERP tools like those from KPS analyze in which stores items are in particularly high demand or where there is less demand. Based on this, they take care of shipping from A to B.

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