Lectra recently hosted a global event for upholstered furniture manufacturers in Bordeaux-Cestas. More than 120 participants from the industry, representing 16 countries, were present. The event focused on the main challenges facing the furniture industry today, specifically how to offer more choice in less time and reduce costs by producing faster, efficiently, profitably, customized and responsibly.
One of the key aims of the event was to give participants the opportunity to experience Lectra's expert knowledge and solutions in operation firsthand, through interactive workshops, live demonstrations, and round-table discussions.
Several customers, including Polipol (Germany), Muebles Liz (Mexico) and Klaussner Furniture (US) gave presentations on how an optimized process had served to improve their companies' performance.
"We have just opened a state-of-the-art leather processing facility in Poland. Working closely with Lectra, the entire plant was conceived to take advantage of lean manufacturing principles, from hide reception to finished goods expedition in a seamless process. This has enabled us to shorten delivery time to our customers, reduce waste and incorporate more hide information directly into our ERP system," explained Peter Jürgens, CIO of Polipol.
VP Operations with Klaussner Furnishings, Glenn Kahn, explained how his company has accelerated the product development process and lowered costs. IT Manager of Muebles Liz, Victor Ibarra showed how the company has optimized its fabric cutting process, resulting in the quadrupling of production capacity.
The climax of the event was the unveiling of the "Lectra Sofa" designed exclusively for Lectra by Sylvain Joly Design Studio, and built by Daveluy Creations (France) to showcase the efficiency and effectiveness of an integrated, collaborative process, using only Lectra's DesignConcept® Vector® and Versalis® solutions. "Working in tandem with the designer and Lectra, we were able to iron out problems using the 3D virtual prototype. This resulted in a first physical prototype which was 95% ready for production," estimated Pascal Daveluy.