Whenever we innovated a process with technology, we gained time, and this allowed us to employ the dexterity of our expert craftsmen in embellishing shoes with some details a machine will never be able to performe.
You feel right away something different in the landscape. Roads extending themselves in the plain and the sea that fringes the hills; the sun no longer sets like a blade, it breaks on the mountains and struggles to reach the beaches. The Marche region presents itself this way: a novelty, a change of perspective.
It is Giordano Torresi, La Manuelita’s Project Manager, who pronounces the initial phrase/manifesto and it is him who leads us into the fascinating world of La Manuelita, a footwear company that produces luxury shoes with a skillful mix of tradition and innovation. Talking to him is a bit like reaching the hills of the Marches: you feel that something has changed, that the panorama of his horizons is very, very different from the past.
“We innovate in terms of process, methodologies and structures. We apply advanced and pioneering technologies in the footwear sector, which are accompanied by a deep knowledge of tradition, of how a shoe is made and of real production issues”.
The internal Research and Development Centre called: Project, has become the emblem of the company. A business unit of La Manuelita founded with the aim of creating advanced solutions for the development of footwear design, from the prototype to the sample, by engineering and automating industrial processes capable of improving the quality and reducing production costs and times through digital world applications.
“To make real innovation it is important that those who think and propose it, perfectly know the traditional way of making a shoe. It must be inserted into the production world to identify the hot spots on which the renewal hammer can beat, bringing effective changes. True innovation rests on the shoulders of tradition. Innovating does not mean alienating what is behind you, but evolving what already exists, redesigning processes without fear. Innovating means doing exactly the same things as before, by improving quality and efficiency”.
What is the real challenge of your ambitious project?
“Making robots work even on women’s 110 heels: automation is not just intended for sport shoes. It is actually the women’s luxury footwear sector, which requires millimetre precision, to be able to better exploit the advantages of digital and more advanced machinery.
To do this, of course you will also need to rethink some parts of the production process and component engineering. But this is an inevitable process that luxury productions have been facing for some years now. In our segment there is already a utmost attention towards industrialisation to ensure quality consistency. And on this fact technological innovation can play a key role.
Why, then, does not everyone look to innovation with the same interest?
“Maybe because it means changing what one has been doing ever since and that has been successful in the past. But we are not obliged by law to keep everything about tradition. Maybe it’s worth changing whatever does not bring added value. To us, automation does not mean automating everything, but growing and enhancing craftsmanship”.
Any successful organisational innovation of yours?
“We have changed the way of organising the conveyor system and quality control in the factory: in our company it’s the person’s wisdom that determines the time to dedicate to each phase, not a rhythm imposed by an automatic conveyor system. Furthermore, we have highly increased the number of in line quality controls by decoupling the phases and checking more often that the shoe is perfect in its production processing”.
Where do you start from when you renovate a shoe factory?
“In our opinion, a fundamental starting point is the 3D design of the shoe and its components. To us, this meant being able to activate many virtuous paths: the 3D design carried out within La Manuelita allowed our suppliers, especially those of bottom components, to work in parallel gaining thus time in technical development without neglecting the quality. The 3D design of metal accessories allows us to create prototypes with 3D printing and see them on shoes without having to invest in a new mould. We have even built tools for industrialisation and quality control using 3D printing. Finally, three-dimensional design allows us to interact with both B2B and B2C customers, using augmented reality renderings and applications. Today we are able to find defects in a shoe without being physically in the same room with designers and technicians of the companies that work with us. Digitising the work is fundamental to us: today our factory can be integrated with the PLM systems of our customers and this allows us to offer customers a service level that goes far beyond the product we produce for them”.
Are people working in the sector ready for this revolution?
“Innovating and digitising means creating new roles in the company. On the one hand, striving for innovation allows us to attract talented people to work with us. On the other hand it allows us to improve the work of those who have been working with us for years and in this way we make sure that the key skills that are needed to keep the quality level remain high in our company. However, we must be aware that some skills are not easily found on the labour market, especially in the footwear industry. For this reason we are creating a shoe academy within the Bartolucci palace, in the historic centre of Sant’Elpidio. The goal is to train 3D footwear designers or engineers to apply robotics to footwear, that is those figures we already need and that we hope will find employment in other factories of the district in the future”.
Is this a possible route also for SMEs?
“We believe that this type of innovation is a viable route even for small and medium-sized Italian companies and a good opportunity to maintain what we do best, that is, quality shoes, preserving a margin that allows us to grow and make our companies sustainable. Our dream is to bring to Italy processes that are currently produced abroad and this is only possible if we find the way to enhance our strengths and at the same time offer our customers quality products and services at reasonable costs”.
What is more urgent for this to happen?
“We need start-up incubators to develop concrete ideas based on the needs of the factory. We need a strong connection between footwear companies to develop innovative, pre-competitive common tools and connections with companies in other sectors that already operate on certain issues (such as the automotive sector).
We need a cultural change that pushes seniors to risk and young people to return to the conveyor system. Let everyone understand that the next future is actually an advanced technological workshop. If in the past they used to tell us: ‘If you don’t study you’ll end up working in a factory’, today the time has come to say: ‘Study, in order to work in a factory’”.
