“沒有兩隻鞋底是完全相同的……”
近日，《華爾街日報》一篇名為“為什麼讓機器人生產你的耐克鞋如此困難（Why It’s So Difficult for Robots to Make Your Nike Sneakers）”的報道指出，特朗普將關稅視為重振美國製造業的利器，但耐克試圖將製造遷出亞洲的掙扎歷程卻提供了一個警示案例。
Trump sees tariffs as a way to boost US manufacturing, but Nike's struggle to move production from Asia is a cautionary tale.
耐克耗時且耗資的自動化實驗，最終因工藝、技術等問題宣告失敗。
美國總統特朗普企圖用關稅政策迫使美國企業把製造業和工作崗位遷回美國。
但美國的勞動力成本高昂，這意味著企業將不得不設法用機器取代人工。事實證明，這對一些行業來說異常困難。
多年來，耐克公司（Nike）一直試圖將部分生產業務從中國、印尼和越南轉移到北美的努力，就顯示出美國品牌想要擺脫對那些亞洲靈活、低成本的代工製造商的依賴有多難。
President Trump is betting that the threat of stiff tariffs on low-cost countries in Asia and elsewhere will pressure American companies to bring manufacturing—and jobs—back to the US. But high US labor costs mean companies would have to find ways to replace human workers with machines. For some industries, that has proved surprisingly difficult. Indeed, a yearslong effort by Nike to shift part of its manufacturing from China, Indonesia and Vietnam to North America illustrates how tough it is for US brands to wean themselves off the flexible, low-cost contract manufacturers.
早在2015年，耐克就開始斥資於一項計劃，希望能讓這個一直以來高度勞動密集型的行業實現部分自動化。
Starting in 2015, Nike poured millions into an ambitious effort to partly automate what has always been a highly labor-intensive industry.
這家制鞋巨頭找到了美國製造商偉創力（Flex），一家曾幫助蘋果建起復雜工廠來生產Mac Pro電腦的美國製造商。耐克希望，到2023年，能夠在新建的高科技製造基地生產數千萬雙耐克運動鞋。
該工廠仍將僱用數千名工人，但數量將遠少於在亞洲生產同樣數量運動鞋所需的工人。一些參與者表示，如果成功，這個專案或許能成為在美國進行生產的模板。
The shoe giant turned to Flex, an American manufacturer that had helped Apple set up a complex factory in Texas to make Mac Pros. The goal: Make tens of millions of Nike sneakers at a new high-tech manufacturing site in Guadalajara, Mexico, by 2023.The plant would still include thousands of workers, but far fewer than are needed in Asia to make the same number of sneakers. If successful, the project could be a model for production in the US, according to some involved in the effort.
與此同時，耐克的競爭對手們也開始重新思考製造業模式。阿迪達斯（Adidas）大約在同一時間推出了“快速工廠”，利用高科技機械快速生產運動鞋。時任服裝製造商安德瑪（Under Armour）創新執行副總裁凱文·哈利（Kevin Haley）曾承諾將利用自動化技術在巴爾的摩生產鞋子。
圖源：東方IC
耐克的計劃是在不到10年的時間裡實現大規模自動化生產，節省勞動力成本，能夠更快地交付新款運動鞋。但這項工作很快就遇到了麻煩。
機器人很難處理製鞋過程中不可或缺的柔軟、粘稠和有彈性的部件。鞋類織物也會隨溫度變化而膨脹和收縮。在製鞋過程中，沒有兩隻鞋底是完全相同的。
人工可以適應這樣的挑戰，但事實證明機器很難做到這一點。
The robots struggled to handle the soft, squishy and stretchy parts that are integral to shoemaking.Shoe fabrics also expand and contract depending on the temperature, while in shoemaking no two soles are exactly alike.Human workers can adapt to such challenges, but it proved difficult for machines.
曾為偉創力監督這個專案的湯姆·弗萊徹（Tom Fletcher）表示，“你試圖做一些非常精確的事情，但溫度稍微變冷或變熱，材料就會發生變化。我們沒有預料到這一點。”
“You’re trying to do something very precise and then it gets a little colder or warmer, and the material changes on you,” said Tom Fletcher, who oversaw the project for Flex. “We did not anticipate that.”
因此，工廠的生產從未實現預期的自動化水平。
隨著運動鞋產量的增加，工廠員工數量激增至5,000人，約為原計劃的兩倍，成本也超過了越南類似規模的工廠。事實證明，粘合鞋底和鞋面等精細工作在內的諸多工都很難實現自動化。
弗萊徹說：“如果操作不當，鞋子就會出現明顯的扭曲，這種偏差從美學角度而言意味著無法透過質量測試。”
As a result, factory production never became as automated as envisioned. As shoe production increased, the factory personnel swelled to 5,000, about twice as many as originally planned and costing more than a similar workforce in Vietnam. Task after task proved challenging to automate, like the delicate work of gluing soles to the upper part of the shoe.“If you didn’t lay it the right way, there would be a noticeable twisting of the shoe, a misalignment that aesthetically means it would fail quality tests,” said Fletcher.
自動化生產意味著要設計出機器可以不斷重複生產的簡單產品。
而耐克生產的鞋子種類繁多。與汽車或iPhone不同，鞋子的款式一直在變化。
A central problem was also the huge variety of shoes Nike produces. And unlike cars or iPhones, shoe models are changing all the time.But automating manufacturing means designing simple products that machines can undertake over and over again.
文章提到，偉創力團隊曾花費八個月時間才找到一種可以將耐克標誌新增到鞋子上的自動化方法，但耐克卻轉而生產新的鞋款，偉創力開發的方法不再適用。
負責監督該專案的耐克前高管邁克爾·牛頓（Michael Newton）說：“你必須對產品設計、材料的複雜性和使用的模型做出一些犧牲。這與消費者的願望背道而馳。他們想要的是產品令人難以置信的多樣性。”
“You have to make sacrifices from how to design to the complexity of the materials and models you’ll work with,” said Michael Newton, the former Nike executive who oversaw the project. “That goes against what the consumer wants. They want incredible diversity of product.”
牛頓表示，耐克不願意限制其設計，並希望製造商能生產出設計團隊設想出的任何新鞋。
2017年，偉創力的投資者對該公司不斷上升的成本望而卻步，一些人質疑一家生產電子產品的公司為什麼要參與制鞋業。
圖源：東方IC
文章提到，2019年初，偉創力和耐克結束了這個專案。而阿迪達斯和安德瑪也對其過去將生產回遷本土的努力不予置評。
美國商務部部長霍華德·路特尼克（Howard Lutnick）表示，政府希望勞動密集型產業迴歸美國。
在最近接受哥倫比亞廣播公司（CBS）採訪時他提到，美國將需要“數百萬甚至上千萬的人擰小小的螺絲來製造iPhone”。
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said the administration wants labor-intensive industries to return to the US. There will be an “army of millions and millions of people screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones,” he said in a recent interview with CBS.
當精密的機械遇到柔軟的布料，“美國製造”的雄心在製鞋業遭遇了滑鐵盧。
編輯：李金昳
來源：華爾街日報
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