Method For Efficient And Localized Production Of Shoes

Abstract

Methods and systems relating to efficient shoe manufacturing that reduce the specialized human labor required to manufacture a pair of shoes while avoiding the high costs and special maintenance requirements often associated with highly automated manufacturing equipment are provided. Systems and methods in accordance with the present invention may be used to produce multiple models of custom shoes at a single shoe manufacturing facility using overlapping workflows, thereby reducing the physical footprint of the manufacturing facility. Additionally, embodiments of the invention may provide methods and systems for efficiently producing shoes to meet the demands of a particular geographic location, thereby eliminating the need to import shoes produced in other locations.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 194,496, filed Sep. 26, 2008, entitled “Method for Efficient and Localized Production of Shoes.”BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Shoe production is a labor-intensive process that has changed little despite advancements in automation over the past 100 years. Thus, most shoe manufacturing operations today require a significant amount of manual input. For example, one worker may cut, form, align, and stitch an upper piece of a shoe. While this process may utilize a number of machines, there is still a significant amount of human input required that can introduce variation between any two different uppers. This upper shoe piece may then be passed to another worker who may then add embroidery or other embellishments, which also require a significant amount of human input. These high levels of human input can introduce undesired variations in the finished shoe-pro...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0004]The present invention relates to efficient shoe manufacturing methods and systems that reduce the specialized human labor required to manufacture a pair of shoes while avoiding the high costs and special maintenance requirements often associated with highly automated manufacturing equipment. Systems and methods in accordance with the present invention may be used to produce multiple models of custom shoes at a single shoe manufacturing facility. For example, one customer may order a particular model of shoe while a second customer may order a different model of shoe, yet both shoe models may be manufactured at the same facility by utilizing overlapping workflows.

Problems solved by technology

Shoe production is a labor-intensive process that has changed little despite advancements in automation over the past 100 years.

Thus, most shoe manufacturing operations today require a significant amount of manual input.

While this process may utilize a number of machines, there is still a significant amount of human input required that can introduce variation between any two different uppers.

These high levels of human input can introduce undesired variations in the finished shoe-product.

Further, the large amount of human labor required in the making of shoes has limited the ability to produce on-demand custom shoes at a price deemed acceptable by most customers.

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