When setting up a PU safety shoe factory, one of the first pragmatic questions is about people. Labour cost, level of skills, and team structure influence your production speed and also your end profits!
So what’s the answer?: Well, it depends on your outputs, automation levels, and management of people…so to save you time, here is the longer answer in a way that might help you estimate!
Setting Up a Typical PU Shoe Production Line
Usually, in a typical setup of PU safety shoes, being PU of the dual-density type, the following machines and systems will be needed:
- PU injection (DIP or rotary) machine
- with the related mix and dosing system
- moulds
- mould carriers
- preheating and cooling stations
- finishing and inspection area
If you are running with a fully automatic rotary PU shoe machine, you will need many less workers, than for a semi-automatic or manual setup.
Typical Workforce Estimate (Per line)
For a medium production automatic PU shoe line (about 1000-1500 pairs per day), we’ll need:
Machine Operation
- 2-3 people to operate the PU injection machine.
- 1 technician dedicated to monitoring material feed (ratio of polyol/isocyanate, temperature, pressure)
Upper Preparation & Assembly
- 4-6 workers needed to place the uppers into the actual mould.
- (This number swings quite a lot with product variation).
Demoulding & Finalisation
- 3-5 workers to demould, trim etc.
Quality Control
- 1-2 QC workers to check bonding, appearance, etc. and to reject/accept product.
Associated Roles
- 1 maintenance worker (often shared between two or more production lines).
- 1 or 2 supervisory or line leader staff.
👉 ~ 12-18 workers in a standard PU footwear production line.
What Varies Most Here
It’s not a hard number. In real projects we’ve come across plants who turn out the same number of pairs of shoes daily with just 10 worker operators at their stations and others with 25+. Why?
1) Automation
Full auto “hands off” systems with robot handling of moulds and/or the uppers cutting out the need for several operators, 30-50% less manpower needed on the floor.
2) Product Type
Simple safety shoes are much faster and need less handling. Complex designs (boots usually higher than ankle length, many layers for the upper) need extra help.
3) Worker Quality
The less your people cost to employ, the more of them you need!
Seriously, inexpensive, less skilled workers need more superfluous help until they are fully trained and able to cope. Highly skilled operators with years of experience can often handle “2 or 3 stations”.
4) Production Layout
Poorly laid out line design wastes more workers than most people seem to realise. A good layout may save you 2 or 3 operators per line easily.
Hidden Labour You May Not Be Factoring In
Many new investors simply look to the number of operators required for the line itself plus any supervisors and ignore this reminder. You’ll need:
- whom it is and what they do
- Mould cleaning and maintenance
- Consumables, utility plant and services (compressor, boiler, chiller)
- Packing and related logistics
Count this in to form the true headcount per line. Headcount close to 20-25 people if accounting for full operation of the plant.
How To Reduce The Personnel Employed, Without Reducing Daily Output
A cheap headcount and cheap machines. If you want to remain competitive, “cheap” isn’t the answer and see-will help you get into deeper trouble with the taxman. A good strategy, staying competitive, is to:
- Invest in a rotary PU that woos really saves you on the numbers.
- Work with the layout first, before you buy the plant.
- Invest in staff training way before getting machines on the floor.
- stage and system of raw materials to manufacture.
- Resist pleasure of reactivity and plan for preventive maintenance of components, not waiting until things wear out and fail.
in many true turnkey installations, it’s the saving on installed manpower hours that count towards profit performance, not the price of the machine or plant itself!
A Dental Friendly Word Of Advice
If you intend putting a PU shoe factory together from scratch, do you fancy a line with as few workers on it as possible?
“Bounder, scoundrel of a scamp!”, we hear you yell.
With the best of intentions, I do beg leave to differ quite widely. It often leads to gumming up the works literally and otherwise and things like quality head pains.
Final Thought
A PU shoe production line is a system interrelating and working together machine and people; many plants find it easily as not-continuously trouble to “think through” to new advantage! When design time comes make sure your workforce is part of the design right along with the equipment otherwise, instead of improving, you’ll fall behind and worse.
