Modern Sneakers Fictitious Interview

Interview with Mark Pine, Vice President of Global Sales

Hello, Mr. Pine, I’d like to ask you some questions to assess the maturity of the sales
area to learn about the use of intelligent systems applied to sales related to Industry
4.0.
Do you have any IT system to manage sales and tools to improve the relationship
with your customers?
Yes, of course. We added a new CRM several years ago to manage the entire sales
workflow. We start the sales process by adding the new leads obtained from
marketing campaigns, followed by a follow up between different points of contact we
have with our customers: phone calls, emails, or interactions through social networks.
Once the orders are closed, we finish by creating product manufacturing orders and
invoices.
Do you use artificial intelligence to improve your sales process? We’ve been
evaluating projects, but we haven’t been able to work on them for now. This year, we
hope to use artificial intelligence to select the prices of our next products and to
improve our choice of raw material suppliers. And, last, we hope to use the data
provided by our customers through social networks and visits to our e-commerce sites
to intelligently predict the demand and stock needed for certain products and their
sizes.
John Carlier, COO
Mr. Carlier, have you digitized the logistic process?
I’d be happy to answer this. Yes, of course. We currently have the logistics system
integrated with our logistics providers. However, it’s true that there is a lot left to
improve. Our process starts with managing orders and then incorporating them
through our ERP. We recently implemented a warehouse management system with
third-party logistics systems. Last, we schedule shipments and track them.
But we can only give our customers very basic information on the status of their
orders. We must refer them to the tracking websites of our logistics providers, so we
don’t know the location of packages or incidents and send our customers more
valuable information.
How do you plan how much stock to produce?
We make a production plan based on the production design and the estimated market
demand, which we update manually every week based on the confirmed orders.
Do you have an automated manufacturing plant? And, if so, do you use any system
to improve the OEE?
The plant has PLCs that get daily information on the status of the different machines
and automation systems so we can be aware of problems such as loss of efficiency,
alerts, and other types of incidents.
This information is communicated in real time through OPC UA protocols to a central
server that processes and sends it to our MES. In this system, we conduct
comprehensive plant monitoring, manage the processes, coordinate production and
material requirements, and can view the main KPIs. This includes checking the
efficiency status of the equipment and the productivity of the different stages of
footwear manufacturing. However, we have no way of monitoring from outside the
manufacturing plant for external experts.
With this information, we manually optimize the processes to improve quality and
manufacturing speed. For us, it’s very important to inspect quality using these systems
and the integration with the data obtained from the equipment and machines to
obtain the statistics needed to create a dashboard to monitor the quality of the
different production line processes. In the future, we hope to have predictive
maintenance systems that will help us foresee equipment failures, save time and
repair costs, and avoid problems with deliveries.
What can you tell me about safety? All our personnel have the required safety
training. We have delimited risk areas, and have a control team to identify risks and
improve the safety of our employees in the manufacturing plant. All these processes
have been digitized.
And do you consider the efficiency and use of materials that impact your
sustainability metrics? It’s very important for the company to use sustainable
materials and to calculate the carbon footprint we generate for each item
manufactured according to governmental indexes and requirements. We periodically
analyze this manually based on data obtained from other systems and generate official
reports for the different administrations that request them.
We pay close attention to this topic and calculate the statistics of our energy efficiency,
although we don’t have a plan to optimize our actual usage. This year, we’ll collaborate
with other departments to create a global energy plan that will allow us to make
effective optimizations to help us with our sustainability metrics and save energy usage
costs.
Does this system work in real time? No. We don’t have this data calculated in real
time. As I said, it’s something that we calculate periodically, but we don’t have that
much detail on the process.

Martha Solís, VP of Product

Hi, Ms. Solís, we wanted to talk to you and learn about the state of maturity of the
product development processes you have in your company.
Regarding the design and development of new models of shoes and sneakers that
follow your respectful footwear strategy, could you tell us about the design process
you follow and if it’s digitized?
Sure, I’ll tell you about our process. We currently spend about two months designing a
new footwear model, not counting the time our innovation teams spend selecting new
materials, carrying out morphological studies, evaluating ergonomic structures, etc.
Once we’ve analyzed the market and feedback from our customers, we start with
designs using sketches that we later digitize in 2D following the agreed-upon
requirements and specifications. Once the final designs have been selected, they’re
modeled in 3D using the material specifications.
And how do you put new designs into production?
We plan the manufacturing processes in collaboration with the operational teams for
each designed model following the global processes defined in our ERP. We describe
the materials needed for each product and determine the optimal manufacturing steps
and quality criteria.
A very important section in manufacturing this type of product is ensuring that our
footwear complies with the recommendations of the main associations and
institutions dedicated to studying footprints and respectful footwear. It’s also part of
our strategy to use sustainable and recycled materials, which is in line with our
commitment to protecting the environment.
Do you do any product simulations?
Yes, we have come a long way. The model is parameterized and analyzed through
footprint simulations to check the validity and efficiency of the design before
manufacturing the prototype. Using custom software developed and put into
production a few months ago, we use physical rules to test and visualize the footprint
using different types of feet and defined footprint patterns for models representing
people of different sizes and heights.
What about production processes?
Starting from the final product design, we generate and simulate the 3D design
resulting from each production phase. We validate the needs and requirements from
the time needed per phase, the necessary infrastructure, material, quality fault
tolerance, and manufacturing safety requirements, and perform a carbon footprint
impact study for each manufactured product.
From this design, we generate the manufacturing documentation, quality criteria,
technical specifications, and other materials needed for the manufacturing processes.
In addition, these 3D production models and associated information will allow us, once
in production, to apply corrections and optimizations to the processes designed in the
early stages to improve the efficiency and quality of the resulting products. We expect
that this learning can be used to create more optimized models of the entire
manufacturing process.
Tom Willis, Head of Procurement
Hi, Mr. Willis, can you tell us if you use intelligent systems for the hiring process?
Hi, I don't have much time, but I'll tell you quickly. We have integrated supplier
management and procurement processes into our ERP. We also manage contracts,
framework agreements, and other legal documents. Using the ERP, we can associate
orders to suppliers with production needs according to the designed planning; we can
compare prices and notify production units of delivery dates. I don't know if we can
define this as an intelligent system. We haven’t yet managed to predict delivery
problems and make supplier changes in real time according to production needs, nor
to perform advanced price comparisons to help us identify the most competitive
prices.
By the way, I don't know if anyone on the team has already mentioned this, but we
have a fully updated warehouse inventory thanks to this system. This material is
perfectly stored and categorized, with QR and labels identifying each box with the
materials stored. And thanks to the integration with the ERP, we have a clear view of
the amount of materials we have. All this information allows other departments to
plan the production of sneakers and shoes and even forecast their distribution weeks
in advance. It's not perfect; we still have a long way to go to have the necessary
inventory to cover the orders we receive every day, so we often have problems
producing the required stock to make shipments on the dates that our customers
expect, and we experience some delays.
Sara Allen, Head of Customer Service
Hi, Ms. Allen, nice to meet you. Can you tell us how you improve customer service?
Hello! In my department, we follow up on the opinions, complaints, or
recommendations that our customers send us either by phone, email, social networks,
or through our distributors. This feedback is sent through websites and mobile
applications. We prioritize this feedback and notify the rest of the departments to
obtain answers that help our customers and improve our quality of service and
products. We generate a database in our application hosted in AWS with the responses
and knowledge acquired.
With this data, our consultants can provide our customers with a personalized
response that is quicker and more accurate. To do this, we have a series of KPIs we
keep updated and review with the operations and sales teams.
The product design departments are very happy with this information, as it’s the
knowledge base used to design new shoes and sneakers. For example, it’s helped us
create new product lines, such as shoes designed for rainy days or very cold areas
requiring more insulating materials for inclement weather.
François Debraix, CTO
Nice to meet you, Mr. Debraix. As a smart manufacturing adoption analyst, you’re a
key person who knows how your technology strategy is improving your company.
One of the foundations of smart manufacturing is to be a hyperconnected company.
Can you give us details regarding your state of maturity on this topic?
Sure. Starting at the lowest level, we acquire all the data from the sensors and
manufacturing machines in the plant, which we communicate through the OPC UA
protocol to a central server. This Kepware model acts as a gateway and communicates
with our MES system, where we monitor the production and operation of our
manufacturing plant.
What about security?
We have security systems in place for plant communications to prevent attacks on our
production networks and subnetworks. We have numerous security systems in place
for incident management and ongoing risk assessment, such as an ADFS system, to
ensure the security of user identity and access. For applications, we rely on our
development vendors, but we don’t have internal procedures to assess the safety of
our applications. We’re considering hiring an external company to audit and analyze
the security of our platforms and create contingency plans.
How do you defend yourselves in case of attack?
Up until now, we haven’t been attacked. Although we have defense plans, I couldn’t
tell you what implications an attack could have and if our systems could recover in less
than a day. It’s clear to us that this is something we must invest in and improve to
avoid problems in the future.
And are all of your systems integrated?
Yes, we have a team that is dedicated to this 100 percent, and we also have the
support of suppliers. This has allowed us to integrate our production systems, design,
ERP, CRM, logistics systems, and other applications needed for our business. The
problem is that we depend on our data center that we have had for years in our
factory, and it’s very difficult for us to keep it up to date and not have system crashes.
Regarding data governance, do you have a defined strategy?
Both our internal processes and customer data are in the databases of the solutions
and applications we use and have deployed in our data center. We have a unified
model with which we define our business and have modeled the data in the different
systems, including the R&D ones. What I can tell you is that all of our systems are
compliant with data security requirements.
Do you have a central database that allows you to do a life cycle analysis of your
products?
No. As I said, this data is in different applications, and we have the analysis systems
that each tool gives us, but we can't do this kind of analysis or get insights in real time.
Lisa Solís, CEO
Hi, Ms. Solís. Could I take a few minutes of your time to get your overall view on
digital transformation processes and the use of intelligent systems to improve your
business?
I’m glad to be of help. It’s very important for us to continue developing intelligent
manufacturing systems, and we have a budget item every year to be able to do this,
thanks to the benefits we’re obtaining. Our company is growing by 20 percent
annually, and we have a clear system of economic investment for these issues. Our
entire company has been transformed and optimized to achieve smart manufacturing.
It's very important to remain competitive, and this has allowed us to stay ahead of the
competition by creating new and very innovative footwear models that have yielded
significant economic gains.
And how have you managed to align this transformation with your employees?
We have a great team, although the process has not been easy. First, we had to train
our leaders, and they had to worry about the skills the employees had to develop in
each department. This process doesn’t happen at the same pace in all departments. In
some, we’ve been able to incorporate and innovate processes and products quickly; in
others, we haven’t yet reached that level. In many cases, we have needed external
consultants to guide and support us. A very important task has been creating a training
plan that we have documented in our training platform, which is necessary for new
hires. However, we still have no way of knowing the level of smart manufacturing
knowledge of each of our employees.
How is the collaboration between departments?
We've come a long way, which allows us to collaborate through the Microsoft 365
productivity system we have, although it doesn't have all of our business information,
as most of it’s still in our data center. Even so, we have managed to share innovation,
design, and production resources among the departments that contribute to our
continuous improvement processes. We also generate reports using this information
to share with suppliers and other institutions.