Lectra expands its Furniture On Demand offer with Valia and Vector cutting equipment to accelerate the transition of furniture industry players to Industry 4.0

This new offer automates preparation, planning and manufacturing to optimize on-demand production flows and reduce material consumption.

PARIS, Jan. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Lectra supports the transformation of fashion, automotive and furniture players by providing them with technological solutions that accelerate their transition to a more efficient and more sustainable Industry 4.0. The Group announces the launch of its enhanced Furniture On Demand by Lectra offer. This solution automates, streamlines and gives total visibility over on-demand production – unitary and series – of furniture products, enabling smarter and more sustainable manufacturing. The Group is also launching a new generation of smart and connected furniture cutting equipment, VectorFurniture Q2 and VectorFurniture iX2.

The furniture industry is characterized by rare expertise and complex processes. For several years, the sector has faced growing demand for customization, involving various choices of shapes, colors and fabrics. To meet this challenge, furniture manufacturers need to be able to produce on demand, quickly, cost-effectively and sustainably.

Since 2018 and the launch of its Furniture On Demand by Lectra offer, Lectra has played a pioneering role in enabling the automation of on-demand production, facilitating the production of small runs at the same rate as mass production and promoting material savings.

"Today, we are continuing to innovate by enhancing this solution with Valia, our digital production preparation and planning platform for upholstered furniture," explains Maximilien Abadie, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Product Officer at Lectra. "Furniture On Demand by Lectra connects all the components in the cutting room and facilitates order and production data processing. Our customers gain additional advantages for optimizing automated manufacturing workflows and material consumption on their production lines. With this new offer, they are fully committed to Industry 4.0 and benefit from a significant competitive advantage, offering new growth drivers for more sustainable production."

Greater interoperability and reduced environmental impact thanks to data intelligence

Hosted in the cloud, the Valia digital platform connects to Lectra's equipment in the cutting room, as well as upstream to the customer's ERP¹ system, enabling them to receive orders, process them automatically and send them to the cutting room, without human intervention. This digitization, using real-time data, automates and simplifies every stage of the fabric cutting process, from preparation to planning and execution.

The Valia platform is capable of integrating the production rules known by only a handful of experts in the cutting room, making it possible to secure operations, standardize practices and automatically mix and allocate cutting orders to the right cutting equipment, optimizing material savings.

Valia Furniture's automated management provides upholstered furniture manufacturers with the ability to visualize cutting room processes in order to identify necessary adjustments, escalate alerts and make instant decisions to improve cutting room performance and optimize their on-demand production.

A new generation of connected and eco-responsible cutting equipment

Together with its new Furniture On Demand by Lectra offer, the Group is launching the new generation of VectorFurniture Q2 and VectorFurniture iX2 fabric cutters. This new equipment is specifically adapted to ensure a quick and easy transition from low-volume production to higher-volume orders, while improving cutting quality.

VectorFurniture Q2 and VectorFurniture iX2 offer a high level of connectivity thanks to numerous built-in sensors, which makes them fully compatible with Industry 4.0. Thanks to data intelligence and improved connectivity, manufacturers have all the data they need to increase the efficiency of their processes, boost productivity, improve product quality and better meet the challenges of tomorrow.

This eco-designed equipment consumes 30% to 40% less energy than the previous generation, already renowned for its energy performance, maximizing efficiency. It is more compact and 200 kilograms lighter, significantly reducing environmental impacts during production, transport and use.

Ergonomics and operator protection, Lectra's key concerns, have been completely redesigned with the integration of motion detection sensors, the reduction of equipment noise levels and the introduction of new standards for circuit boards.

¹ ERP system: Enterprise Resource Planning, an integrated management system that brings together several applications to manage a company's operational and administrative activities.

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