CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
16 April 2012
Product News
Lectra Announces the Launch of its Versalis® Furniture Range
Lectra announced the launch of Versalis® Furniture. With this new range, furniture manufacturers can achieve record productivity by optimizing production cycles and maximizing the material savings, without compromising on the quality of cutting.
Dominated by China, the United States, Italy, Poland and Germany, the furniture market has grown steadily over 10 years. Despite the constant increase in the price of leather—more than 40% since 2008—a third of consumer purchases are related to leather products.
"In recent years, furniture manufacturers have had to review their processes and their organization to develop, or simply maintain their market share. In particular, they have to respond to the growing demand to have a stronger, more attractive and competitive brand identity," said Daniel Harari, Lectra CEO. "For manufacturers, the equation is complex because it requires a high level of productivity, without any compromise on the quality, while optimizing the use of leather and the intervention of skilled operators. Knowing, furthermore, that the relocation of the production of furniture remains limited due to transport costs, which are generally critical."
"The significant increase in the cost of leather—which accounts for 40% to 60% of the total cost of production—and the scarcity and cost of skilled labor, makes the Versalis Furniture range extremely attractive," said Bertrand Crönert, Manufacturing Marketing Director, Lectra. "Based on the Lean approach, this new range is a very profitable investment: taking into account the material savings alone, we believe that the manufacturers will be able to save hundreds of thousands of Euros per year and per solution."
Versalis Furniture, a complete range to meet the different production modes for furniture
The Lectra teams have advanced knowledge on the specificities of leather and the corresponding types of production. Benefiting from more than 20 years alongside furniture manufacturers, the Versalis Furniture range includes four cutting solutions, which meet the specific needs of the furniture manufacturers’ different modes of production and adapt to their needs.
This new range, consisting of a cutter with one or two cutting heads with mono-conveyor or multi-conveyors, a solution to analyze hides and a software suite to manage and optimize operations; offers a perfect balance between the different stages of work, proof of an optimized production cycle. The workflow is thus rebuilt, which allows the operators to focus their expertise on value added tasks.
The new very modular Versalis Furniture range covers 80% of the market’s needs: sofas, seats, chairs and reclining chairs; entry-level, middle and high-end products; medium and mass production; very flexible to rigid leather (aniline, semi-aniline, nubuck, corrected pigmented, bicast and split leather). The last 20% is completed by the Lectra’s PLF Furniture offer, dedicated to cutting prototypes and small series.
High-level performance for productivity and material savings
The Versalis Furniture range addresses the major concerns of furniture manufacturers, who are searching for solutions that reduce manufacturing time and meet the demand to increase production, while limiting the consumption of leather.
It helps balance the stages of scanning, nesting, cutting and offloading, without slowing down or interrupting the cycle, an exclusive benefit for manufacturers. The multi-conveyors or mono-conveyor solutions help maintain an optimum level of productivity and constant performance. Versalis Furniture incorporates automatic nesting solutions to maximize the use of material; as well as a unique digitalization of the hides solution to treat so-called natural, particularly vulnerable leather cutting.
Last but not least, at each stage, the risk of error and associated costs is reduced by a constant automatic control of all production information, costing, analysis and process optimization.
Versalis, Lectra’s new family of cutting leather solutions
From 2007 to 2012, Lectra has invested more than 13 million Euros to develop Versalis, its family of solutions dedicated to leather cutting. Versalis Furniture joins the Versalis Auto and Versalis Fashion ranges, launched respectively in May and November 2011.
Part of Lectra’s comprehensive solutions, from design to production, the Versalis range comes with specific service offers.
Become a member of the CIMdata PLM Community to receive your daily PLM news and much more.
Tell us what you think of the CIMdata Newsletter. Send your feedback.
CIMdata is committed to your privacy. Your personal information will never be sold or shared outside of CIMdata without your express permission.