Leather and Footwear Journal

Volume 17, no 3

Contents
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Strategic Decision Making for a Footwear Industry Using Activity Based Costing and Value Chain Models
- Pages 119-128
  Rishi DWIVEDI¹, Shankar CHAKRABORTY²*
  - ¹Center for Business Administration, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, India
  - ²Department of Production Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, e-mail: s_chakraborty00@yahoo.co.in
  ABSTRACT. Majority of the enterprises in modern day world are facing speedy transformation in their business dynamics. Organizational challenges have been deepened by the deregulation, in tandem with the escalating worldwide competition and diminution in product life cycles resulting from scientific modernization. Hence, with a view to be competitive under these vibrant conditions, it is important to comprehend how a business functions, how costs are incurred and how they can be efficiently managed. Activity based costing (ABC) model is a new cost accounting approach developed to overcome limitations of the traditional volume-based cost accounting methods and enhance its usefulness in strategic decision making. This paper presents the development and application of an ABC model to cost the entire range of products of an Indian footwear manufacturing industry in order to enhance its competitiveness. Although, there is sufficient published research papers associated with implementation of ABC model in manufacturing sector, none of them has adopted ABC technique in the context of footwear manufacturing. Furthermore, a combined approach employing ABC and value chain models is proposed for the first time for the said footwear industry to demonstrate how it can be implemented in a complementary way to formulate a superior strategy.
  
  KEY WORDS: activity based costing, value chain analysis, footwear industry, activity, strategy
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Classification of Diabetic Feet in terms of Risk of Ulceration
- Pages 129-134
  Jinming LIU¹, Kun HU², Hui SU², Bo XU^1,3, Jiuping XU³, Jin ZHOU^1,4*
  - ¹National Engineering Laboratory for Clean Technology of Leather Manufacture, Sichuan University; Chengdu 610065, P.R.China
  - ²Guangdong Huizhou Quality & Measuring Supervision Testing Institute; Huizhou 516003, China
  - ³School of Business, Sichuan University; Chengdu 610065, P.R. China
  - ⁴Chengdu Anland Co., LTD; Chengdu 610065, P.R. China, e-mail: zj_scu@qq.com
  ABSTRACT. Diabetic feet are common complications in diabetes mellitus, but its classification in terms of risk of ulcer based on multiple measures was rear reported. Therefore the aim of this study was to establish a classification system for diabetic feet according to data from feet deformities, plantar pressures and peripheral neuropathy. This system comprised 13 categories with three main factors in varied levels: Feet deformities [Mild (one or without deformity), Moderate (two deformities) and Severe level (more than two deformities)], peripheral neuropathy (no, moderate and serious levels) and plantar pressure distribution (≤100%MP*; 100≤ and ≤120% MP*; more than 120% MP*, where "MP*" is the data of healthy population). Further, we conducted a case study to explain of our system, the results show that 32 patients with diabetes were divided into the following categories: 22 for I++, 8 for II+, 2 for IV+. Overall, This system can help the clinician detect the risk levels of feet and take necessary measures to prevent diabetic ulcers in feet.
  
  KEY WORDS: diabetic feet, feet ulcers, classification of diabetic feet, feet deformity, plantar pressure distribution
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Court Shoe Production Line: Improve Process Cycle Efficiency by Using Lean Tools
- Pages 135-146
  Md. Abu SAYID MIA^1,2*, Md. NUR-E-ALAM³, M. Kamal UDDIN²
  - ¹Institute of Leather Engineering and Technology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh, e-mail: emsayid@gmail.com
  - ²Institute of Appropriate Technology, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka-1000
  - ³Leather Research Institute (LRI), Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Savar, Dhaka-1350, Bangladesh
  ABSTRACT. Lean manufacturing is an applied methodology of scientific, objective techniques that cause work tasks in a process to be performed with a minimum of non-value adding activities resulting in greatly reduced wait time, queue time, move time, administrative time, and other delays. This work addresses the implementation of lean principles in a footwear manufacturing industry in order to evaluate present Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE) and lead time prior to developing an improved strategy to bring the improved PCE and to reduce the lead time. At the present state, the PCE was found 8.32% and after the implementation of lean tools, it would be 19.46% at the future state where lead time would also be reduced by 57.24% evaluated by Pareto analysis and value stream mapping (VSM) tools. The production flow was optimized by minimizing several non-value added activities and time such as bottlenecking, machine breakdown, queue time, waiting time, material handling time, etc. Eventually, this study will be useful in developing a more generic approach to design lean environment in the management system of the studied "X" Footwear Industry in Bangladesh.
  
  KEY WORDS: lean tools, VSM, lead time, PCE, technology assessment, court shoe, Bangladesh
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Characteristics of Polymer Composites Based on Natural Rubber
- Pages 147-154
  Maria Daniela STELESCU¹*, Elena MĂNĂILĂ², Maria SÖNMEZ¹, Mihaela NIŢUICĂ¹
  - ¹National Research and Development Institute for Textiles and Leather (INCDTP), Division Leather and Footwear Research Institute (ICPI), 93 Ion Minulescu St., Bucharest, Romania, e-mail: dmstelescu@yahoo.com
  - ²National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Electron Accelerators Laboratory, 409 Atomistilor St., 077125, Magurele, Romania
  ABSTRACT. This paper presents the obtaining and characterization of new types of polymeric composites based on natural rubber and plasticized starch, crosslinked using peroxide in the presence of a polyfunctional monomer - trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate. Composite variants containing 10 phr, 20 phr, 30 phr, 40 phr and 50 phr starch, respectively were made. Starch was plasticized and then incorporated in natural rubber in the roll mill, and then other ingredients were added; the resulting mixtures were cured in an electrical press. The physicomechanical characteristics of resulting composites depends on the amount of plasticized starch added to the rubber mixture. The results of liquid action on composites show that it depends on the behaviour of mixture components in immersion media; thus, natural rubber is water resistant (variation of mass and volume in water has very low values) but not resistant to toluene (variation of mass and volume in toluene has high values); starch is hydrophilic - it absorbs water and, with the increased amount of starch in the mixtures, there is also an increase of mass and volume variation in water, but the values obtained are good, with mass and volume variation after 22 h of water immersion being below 8%. In toluene, there is an improvement in the behaviour of composites containing plasticized starch compared to control ones (without plasticized starch). The new polymer composites can be used in various fields such as in the food or pharmaceutical areas that require compositions free of toxic ingredients.
  
  KEY WORDS: polymer composites, natural rubber, starch, characteristics
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A Study on Water Vapour Permeability with Increased Functional Properties of Upper Leathers
- Pages 155-162
  Victor JOHN SUNDAR*, Chellappa MURALIDHARAN
  - Leather Process Technology Division, Adyar, Chennai - 600 020, India, e-mail: johnsundar70@yahoo.co.uk
  ABSTRACT. Water vapour permeability is one of the most important physical properties of leathers, which impacts the essential functional properties such as the breathability and the comfort of leather products. With growing stringent requirements for sports footwear this property gains added significance. In this work an attempt has been made to enhance the water vapour permeability for upper leathers by opening up the fibre structure and designing suitable tanning and post tanning processes. The objective of improving water vapor permeability through enzymatic and chemical methods has been achieved without affecting other mechanical properties of leathers. Thermoporometry results too confirmed the water vapour permeability was improved positively with enzymatic and chemical treated leathers. The major finding is the differences in water vapour permeability between crust and finished leathers were minimal.
  
  KEY WORDS: leather, water vapour permeability, footwear
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Pressure Distribution Patterns and Shapes of foot under Long-Term Loads
- Pages 163-172
  Yunpeng TANG
  - Guizhou University of Commerce, Guiyang 550014, China, tang762267@163.com
  ABSTRACT. In this paper, we use instruments to scan the feet of athletes with no foot disease or previous injury from Beijing Sport University and ordinary college students from Tsinghua University and obtain the foot shapes and the changes therein of the subjects. Then we design and extract indices like foot length and foot width, perform statistic analysis of the foot shapes of young athletes under different loads, and obtain a group of data regarding the foot shape features of young athletes under different loads. This group of data can provide experimental operation experience and data support for the establishment of national young athlete foot shape index database. By analyzing the differences between the foot shape indices of young athletes under different loads, we find that different loads have some impacts on the foot shape changes. There are great differences between the foot shape indices of young athletes and ordinary college students in China, and of the young athletes in China, foot shape indices like foot length and width are likely to vary greatly due to different loads.
  
  KEY WORDS: young athletes, foot shapes, different loads, characteristic index
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Footwear Protection against Fungi Using Thyme Essential Oil
- Pages 173-178
  Corina CHIRILĂ, Viorica DESELNICU, Mariana Daniela BERECHET
  - INCDTP - Division Leather and Footwear Research Institute, 93 Ion Minulescu st., sector 3, 031215 Bucharest
  ABSTRACT. Many natural antimicrobial agents have been identified over the last decades, such as essential oils, which have a proven effect against bacteria and fungi found on feet. This paper investigates antifungal activity of thyme essential oil against Trichophyton interdigitale on sheepskins for footwear lining. Thyme essential oil showed the best antifungal activity on sheepskins for footwear lining. Thyme oil offers a much safer alternative to toxic biocides. The results of this study may have potential for use in the development of applications in the sanitation of footwear components.
  
  KEY WORDS: sheep skins lining leather, thyme essential oil, antifungal activity, Trichophyton interdigitale
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