FOOTURE 4.0 is INESCTEC’s roadmap of innovation in the footwear industry
On 9 March and under the “Roadmap of Innovation”, the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, participated in the fourth roadmap, which was dedicated to the footwear industry and which was attended by the Procalçado group and by the CTCP (Portuguese Technological Footwear Centre).
10th April 2018
The Portuguese Footwear, Components, Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association (APICCAPS) has taken the opportunity to present the official launch of FOOTURE 4.0, known as the Roadmap of the Footwear Sector for the Digital Economy. It is a strategic document that defines an action plan and the required conditions so the sector can benefit from the opportunities of the digital revolution, which is called the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0.
APICCAPS has promptly identified the need and opportunity to launch the developing work of this roadmap, which was marked as one of the measures of the national plan dedicated to Industry 4.0. INESC TEC, which is the R&D favoured partner in the automation and information systems field, headed the technical coordination of the work, which had inputs from the Centre for Enterprise Systems Engineering (CESE), the Centre for Robotics in Industry and Intelligent Systems (CRIIS), the Centre for Industrial Engineering and Management (CEGI), the Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support Laboratory (LIAAD) and the Portuguese Technological Footwear Centre (CTCP). The work was coordinated by Ana Barros and comprised a wideranging team from INESC TEC, CTCP and APICCAPS.
The presentation of FOOTURE 4.0 at CTCP was made by Luís Carneiro, INESC TEC’s Member of the Board. José Carlos Caldeira, Senior Consultant to the Board, Ana Barros and Rui Rebelo from CESE and Mafalda Roxo from LIAAD also attended the event.
The role of INESC TEC in the history of the footwear industry
INESC TEC's contribution to the footwear industry began in the 1990s with the automation and computerisation of existing systems and the development of new equipment. In addition to system simulation, production line optimization models, algorithms and heuristics were also developed for their balancing. More recently, forecast techniques were used from the distribution systems to the point of sales. The research results were applied in recommendation systems, in online stores and other stores, covering the entire value chain.
The Roadmap of Innovation
Under the motto “More and better jobs”, the Roadmap of Innovation is organized by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and by the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI). Its aim is to strengthen the confidence in public and private agents and to expose relevant cases of innovation and with potential statement in different sectors – agricultural and food, Forest, Sea, footwear, textile or even in public administration and society in general.
The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC.
Photo credits - APICCAPS