Project number 2018-1-PT01-KA202-047500 | Start date 01.10.2018 | End date 30-09-2021
According to the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, the 4th industrial revolution is unfolding worldwide, opening up new horizons driven by new-generation digital technologies. This change of paradigm has a profound impact on our economy and society, transforming products, processes and business models in every industry.
The footwear industry is characterized as one of the most handcrafted industries in Europe. In 2016, the European Footwear Sector was represented by 20.300 companies and 286.651 direct employees, with exports to third countries having increased by 40% in quantity and 90% in value from 2009 until 2016. The European footwear industry has a long tradition in production and retail of innovative, creative and high-quality products, developed in accordance to the consumer needs and trends. The intra-European trade represents one third of the world footwear trade.
The European Commission presented the Digitising European Industry initiative (DEI) in April 2016. However, the integration in the new-generation digital technologies is delayed and the main obstacles are not in the technology available but in the workers. The 4th industrial revolution is not about technology; it is about people!
The footwear industry has now to tackle with the challenges presented by the new digital era. The workforce is still characterized by people with a low-qualifications and even lack of ICT competences and knowledge. Despite of all efforts there still are an impressive number of footwear workers who are info-excluded. The process of creating a shoe requires artistic and technical talents and the retail must be done by competent people that are able to suggest the right shoes for the right feet, according to customers’ needs and the technological developments. Bring this talented target group to the digital era is essential to the success of the footwear sector but also to achieve a positive impact on cultural and economical terms and social inclusion. In the whole footwear supply chain, from manufacture to sales, many different skills and capabilities are required.
The process of a shoe’s creation has changed during the years and alongside the master craftsman new technologies made their appearance: programmes and software for the support of shoes’ design and manufacture, new applied technologies, laboratories’ tests, etc. As most digital transformation across industries and countries continues to unfold, the people dimension of these transformations has emerged as the key to unlocking value and ensuring the sustainability of the changes.
The Feet it 4.0 project aims at bringing the industry 4.0 to the footwear companies, mainly for the employees, managers and other key people who have direct connection to the sector and are excluded from or have few access to the centres of knowledge, like universities, which have been, so far, the main players in the implementation of Industry 4.0.
- The project envisages a new methodology to bring industry 4.0 to the companies and to the workforce who are already in the sector for many years. The project establishes a work plan divided in 4 main activities: The first activity intends to adapt the industry 4.0 guidelines to the footwear industry having in consideration the current workforce and also the past and current educational profiles teach in schools.
- The second activity is to set a list of the important competences for the future footwear industry. These competencies will be also linked with the new industry 4.0 key competences. To do so, the partnership will interview, experts, trainers, managers and employees in order to make a diagnosis in the field and will link the results obtained with the industry 4.0 strategy for Europe.
- The third activity is to design a training tool kit which will be applied and provided to the footwear companies and employees so that they can use and implement the new knowledge, competences and abilities in their daily activities within the company.
- The fourth activity is to test the training tool kit in real context. Therefore, all the materials and the framework developed will be first tested in real companies’ trough training pilot sessions which will be developed in the partnership countries where the footwear industry is established. The training pilot session pilot will be implemented by the national technological centres involved in the partnership.
