Manz AG: First serial order within the scope of the Speedfactory project by adidas

07.07.2016 | Reutlingen

• Manz supplies production lines for series production in the world’s first Speedfactory by adidas in Ansbach
• As the project progresses, further orders are expected over the coming years

Manz AG, a globally-active high-tech mechanical engineering company with a comprehensive technology portfolio for the three strategic business units “Electronics”, “Solar” and “Energy Storage”, has received its first large-scale order within the scope of its cooperation with adidas, which was agreed upon at the end of 2015. The order will generate revenues and profit in this fiscal year. At the moment, Oechsler AG, Ansbach, as future operator of the Speedfactory, is currently testing new production processes for high-quality running shoes within the scope of a pilot project across an area of approximately 300 square metres. The machines are to produce approximately 500 pairs of shows as prototypes this year. In the following year, the series production should then commence in the first Speedfactory on a production area of approximately 4,600 square metres, starting with a total of already 500,000 pairs of shoes produced in Germany. A second Speedfactory is planned for 2017 in the USA; other countries worldwide are gradually to follow until 2020.

The order received is the result of the successful transfer of a newly-developed technology from the business unit New Business into series production. Manz AG has already worked together with the leading company in the sports goods branch for five years on the development of this innovative, automated production technology for sports goods, which has now reached the maturity phase of series production. Using a flexible procedure, individual customer designs for shoe components can be fully automatically transferred into production data and produced locally. In this way, adidas wishes to produce shoes as individually, as conservative on resources and therefore as economically as possible in the future.

Dieter Manz, CEO and founder of Manz AG, says: “The Oechsler order represents the next step in the Speedfactory project by adidas, with the long-term objective of worldwide series production. The production within the market with a simultaneous increase in the flexibility of production is true pioneer work. Because the function and design of the shoe can be varied specifically for each customer, we facilitate new and innovative business models. The continuous digitalisation of the process is a living Industry 4.0. At the same time, the order represents the first serial order in additive manufacturing for Manz. We see a great deal of further potential in both areas.”