CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
8 March 2011
Product News
Lectra Leads the Leather Cutting Solutions Market with Leather Suite V3R1
Lectra announced the release of the new Leather Suite V3R1, specially designed for leather cutting and aimed at manufacturers in the automotive and furniture markets. This new software suite integrated into Lectra's leather cutting solutions significantly improves profitability for companies that use leather, while also offering a large number of new features. Combined with its service contract, it provides unprecedented added value for Lectra's customers and a rapid return on investment.
Demand in the global leather market, both in the automotive and furniture sectors, has grown significantly, particularly in emerging countries. Manufacturers are currently experiencing a strong recovery in orders, but they must also cope with a 50 to 100% increase in the price of raw leather since 2009.
"In a context where the price of raw materials often accounts for up to 50% of the production cost of the finished product and competitive pressure is particularly strong, companies in the leather markets have two key levers: material savings and productivity," declared Daniel Harari, Lectra CEO. "With its complete range of solutions for the leather cutting room, Lectra enables manufacturers to optimize their manufacturing processes-both for mass production and small runs. They can thus improve productivity and cut material consumption, while guaranteeing high-quality finished products. The permanent remote assistance and preventive maintenance plans included in Lectra's service contracts also contribute to the overall optimization of their cutting rooms."
A decisive step forward in nesting performance and material savings
Lectra's Leather Suite V3R1 software enables manufacturers to make concrete, measurable material savings of up to 3.5% in automated mode compared with the previous version. Optimized algorithms for nesting and placing difficult parts, coupled with significantly more intuitive and automated functions, makes for a major contribution in enhancing the overall performance of manufacturers in the leather industries. For example, an automotive subcontractor processing standard leathers in two 8-hour shifts, five days a week, with Lectra's CLS Auto leather cutter would see an additional EUR100,000 in material savings each year. The leather saved would have a particularly large impact on its production cost and a significant impact on its income statement.
Delivers the productivity and flexibility required by manufacturers in the leather industries
Regardless of the market, improving productivity in preparing leathers is a constant priority for manufacturers. With the new V3R1 software suite, the calculation time needed to work out the best marker has been reduced by 30%. This is due not only to the efficiency of the nesting algorithms, but also to the performance of the whole solution, which now has powerful new processors integrated into the systems that control the cutting machines.
Another new feature that should significantly enhance manufacturers' productivity is the integration of Lectra's new operating pilot software, which comes from a technology already available on the Vector ® range, into Lectra's leather cutting solutions. For the numerous companies working with separate equipment specific to leather or fabrics, this innovation will provide a more uniform experience of operating Lectra cutting machines. Any operator trained on Lectra's fabric cutting machines can easily work on equipment specially designed for leather, without switching to a new software environment. Leather industry manufacturers will now have a considerable advantage in terms of flexibility and versatility, enabling them to adapt easily to fluctuations in demand, while benefiting from new features that allow them to improve cut quality and enhance production performance.
An efficient solution for optimizing cutting room management and analysis
Lectra's V3R1 software suite also allows manufacturers to significantly improve the management and analysis of their cutting room performance through a completely revised reporting and monitoring module. This upgrade will not only enable them to analyze production data in depth, but also to check-prior to the cutting process-that supplier specifications have been followed (leather quality, production cost per type of supplier over different periods, etc.).
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