Japanese Sports Shoes ASICS Production Automation Expands Japanese Production Base

Japanese sports brand Arthur (ASICS) will start the automatic production of shoes, and plans to introduce robots in some production lines of Tottori County factory in spring 2019.

Workers who rely on manual work will be reduced to half and will be introduced in Europe and America.

Asia, which is the main production base, is facing higher labor costs.

More and more global sporting goods enterprises are promoting the production and consumption through factory automation, improving the speed of the current commodity supply.

Factories in the production subsidiary of Tottori county will introduce robots into the gluing process of upper and sole.

The factory produces Onitsuka Tiger, which is popular among young people.

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The amount of investment has not been disclosed.

By introducing robots, the workers in the process will be reduced by half.

1/3 of the whole shoe production process can be automated.

Plan to promote automation, for example, discussing the introduction of 3D printer in the forming process of sole.

Production is mostly manual work, such as sewing and

And so on.

Arthur spent about 4 of his production in Vietnam on the basis of low labor costs.

Factories in Indonesia and China also rely on business models that are produced in Asia and sell to Japan and Europe and the United States.

The proportion of production in Japan is only a few percentage points.

But the experience of automatic production accumulated in domestic factories will strive to achieve the same production in Europe and the United States in the future.

In order to catch up with the world giants, Arthur will accelerate the construction of a system that can respond quickly to the trend of fashion by reducing costs, shortening the time from planning, production to sales.

Reporter: from a global perspective, what is the source of Arthur's growth?

Hiroda Yasuhito, President of the Japanese sports brand Arthur (ASICS): when the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is more than 7 thousand US dollars, leisure consumption will increase. China has already broken through this level in the huge market.

China's national strength to promote national health is also a plus factor.

The marathon race in China has surged from 22 in 2011 to 1100 last year.

After China, it is estimated that the number of runners in India and Indonesia will also increase.

We hope to promote "Japan Cool" in these growth markets and establish brand names.

In China, it sells for 1 billion yuan a year.

Arthur, a Japanese sports shoe factory (Asics), failed to grasp the rapid growth.

As Japan and the United States fall into a downturn in demand and a slowdown in sales, the company is now turning its focus to China, which is seen as the key to a rebound in performance.

At present, Arthur's sales in China are still lagging behind other competitors, but in the last accounting year, Arthur has sold more than 30 billion yen (270 million US dollars) in the same store in China, which has grown by 50% compared with the previous year.

Arthur, executive director, said: "the goal we want to achieve is 100 billion yen (US $900 million).

But he did not give a clear timetable.

The current business objective is to sell more than 55 billion yen in the same store in 2020.

Internet sales is an important part of Arthur's pursuit of high growth in the Chinese market.

Arthur not only needs to strengthen the advertising marketing of e-commerce, but also is going to carefully analyze and study the data of Internet consumers' purchase history, so as to develop a functional online shopping platform.

Arthur planning allows the Internet platform to quickly display the shoes that match individual customers' preferences and colors and enhance their desire to buy.

Internet sales now account for 10% of Arthur's revenue in China. Oyama Ki said that when sales in China reach 100 billion yen, the proportion of Internet sales is expected to increase to 50%.