PureSole – Vision and market
A monumental project
The Foot Orthopedics division is in the process of restructuring its product portfolio, while working on multiple large projects at the same time. Following TRIactive and 3D printing, the latest product line was launched on the market this spring: PureSole. The new orthotic blanks are developed and produced at the Technology Department in Zeulenroda. With more than 30 new blanks, PureSole is the largest project at the site since production of GloboTec Soft blanks moved from Remscheid in 2014. To learn how much development work, coordination and teamwork it took to make this monumental project come together, we spoke with Product Manager Rico Wagner, Product Developer Peter Schultz in Part 2 (online) and Launch Management employee Doreen Selz in Part 3 (online).
Rico, what is this project all about?
Rico Wagner: With PureSole Comfort, we are taking about an entirely new generation of pressed foot orthoses, more precisely this involves 36 new soft foam and soft cushion orthoses. Our goal was to develop cushioning orthoses that look modern and colorful, with a slim design and as little preparatory work as possible. This makes them attractive for the market and commercially interesting for us. There’s a lot less grinding and adjustment work for the orthotists – that’s a major advantage.
Are the PureSole Comfort blanks more of an evolution or a new start?
Rico Wagner: The base layer is more of an evolution. Pressed insoles have been available on the market for a long time now. So we’re catching up a bit to what competitors already have in their portfolios – but with our own approach. When combining the base layer with the cushion layers, we tested a wide range of options and selected the variants which had the largest market potential based on our experience. Over the long term, the new models should replace our previous soft foam foot orthoses.
What happens when you’re allowed to rethink everything in the development process?
Rico Wagner: The enormous amount of freedom we had during development was really the most exciting part of the project. We were able to test new materials and pursue all our ideas. I quite enjoy going over to the Technology Department and seeing how the ideas are transformed step by step into real products.
And where did this freedom turn into a challenge?
Rico Wagner: A great deal of effort was required on the organizational side of things: acquiring new materials, creating assemblies, managing SAP master data, preparing inspection and quality documents. Many of my colleagues were involved in this process, and at times it was really difficult to stay on top of things. On top of this, some ideas or materials ultimately turned out to not be feasible for series production and had to be rejected. But over time we have gotten more relaxed. We have learned that some things can’t be sped up. If you want to have the best, development will take time.
What are your fondest memories of the project?
Rico Wagner: Above all, a strong sense of team spirit, which kept growing over the course of the project. Especially at the beginning, the workload was heavy for everyone involved due to new processes, materials and SAP entries. But with each additional model, the routine became smoother. From today’s perspective, I’m sure we would approach some things differently because we learned a lot during the project. At the same time, it was precisely this process that brought the team together.
Read more:
Technology and development: How ideas become innovations with Peter Schultz
Organization and series launch: Pulling the strings with Doreen Selz