Impactos da indústria 4.0 no setor do calçado

Abstract

After three historical transformative processes, Industry 4.0 emerges being known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Seen as a new autonomous and intelligent manufacturing paradigm, it is based on the combination of Cyber Physical Systems, intelligent machines, storage systems and production facilities, becoming more independent and capable of adapting to production processes and needs. This study focuses on the concept of Industry 4.0, in order to analyze its main impacts on the Portuguese Footwear Industry. The review of the literature collected and the better understanding of the state of the art among different authors, resulted in a qualitative and exploratory investigation, based on three interviews set with companies in the Portuguese footwear sector which adopt technologies of industry 4.0 in their production. The interviews conducted showed that, in general, the footwear sector has a great openness to new technologies that, despite being in an early implementation phase, have been successful. The study highlighted the importance of analysing the needs of the company before any technological investment, in order to identify which technologies are most suitable for the company. Despite all the benefits that industry 4.0 brings to companies, the main challenge associated is related to the enormous financial investment that is required to make the adoption of advanced technologies, as well as the need to hire skilled labour.

Date of Award	10 Jul 2023
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Jorge Julião (Supervisor) & Marcelo Rudolfo Calvete Gaspar (Supervisor)