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by Jeff Moad, MA Editorial Staff Posted on Sunday, April 27, 2008 5:00:00 AM Sign Up to receive Daily News Alerts in your E-mail Inbox    | Abstract: | After spending more than 10 years and $20 million in an attempt to perfect a highly automated shoe-making process, U.S.-based Otabo fails in its attempt to compete with Chinese producers on labor costs. |
| Keywords: | Otabo, progressing manufacturer, progressive manufacturing |
Otabo LLC, the small start-up shoe company that won Managing Automation's 2005 Progressive Manufacturer of the Year award, in part, because of its determination to keep its production operations in the United States, has decided to close its Pompano, FL, plant and outsource its manufacturing to China.
The shift to offshore manufacturing, which is now being completed, puts an end to a quest by Otabo founder and CEO Howard Shaffer to prove that by using highly automated, digitally enabled production methods, a shoe manufacturer in the United States could compete with Chinese producers that enjoy far lower labor costs. Shaffer and his team spent more than 10 years and about $21 million in an attempt to perfect a highly automated shoe-making process with which Otabo could compete against the rest of the world.
"It's a bit of a defeat not to have realized the plans that we had," said Shaffer by phone from Guangzhou, China, where he was setting up his company's new manufacturing operations recently. "But when something doesn't work, you have to acknowledge it and learn from it."
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