LEATHER CUTTING ROOM

Lectra's expertise fosters operational excellence in the leather cutting room for upholstered furniture manufacturers

INCREASING EFFICIENCY AND
PRODUCTIVITY IN THE FURNITURE INDUSTRY

Chinese upholstered furniture manufacturers are experiencing annual growth level they hope to sustain over the next few years. Some of them even expect to triple their production within 3 years. Managing growth implies building new plants and investing in production tools.
However, if manufacturers expand but keep their current manual operations, not only will they be unable to sustain the production growth, their margins will be adversely affected by the rise in labor and raw material costs. Chinese manufacturers are facing competition from cheaper labor in South-East Asian countries. In addition, delivery time is being shortened while final consumers are asking for more styles, more variants, and more sizes.

As a consequence, manufacturers now have to produce more, faster, better, and to reduce costs and material consumption. The whole furniture process has to be optimized to increase efficiency and productivity, and this can only be achieved through the increasing use of automation.
The Chinese government is already supporting this transition to smart manufacturing, with "Made in China 2025", an initiative to upgrade Chinese industry. For upholstery manufacturers, Lectra is the ideal partner to deliver this change.

LECTRA HELPS FURNITURE MANUFACTURERS
IMPROVE QUALITY AND CUT ALL LEATHER TYPES

One of the guiding principles of "Made in China 2025" is to have manufacturing emphasize quality over quantity. Improving quality usually starts with the choice of the raw material to be used, and for leather furniture suppliers, using natural leather is a must. However, natural leather often has flaws which need to be identified before being cut, but it can not be physically marked. For manufacturers, the more operations related to leather are done manually, including cutting, the greater the risk of error.

More errors mean more waste, which is critical in a context of fast-increasing leather prices, and the quality of the finished product may not be as high as expected.

As manufacturers may have different needs depending on their customers and the type of leather they are working with, Lectra has created the Versalis range which uses a range of methods to cover all possible requirements.
More than just a machine for cutting leather, Lectra’s Versalis is entirely configurable to suit the size of pieces being cut, allowing companies to maintain constant workflow throughout the cutting process, and to improve quality compared to manual cutting while optimizing hide use by up to 5%.

Watch Ekornes video

https://www.lectra.cn/sites/default/files/sections/videos/BLOC%202%20-%20EKORNES%20VIDEO_1_1.mp4

IMPROVING HIDE MANAGEMENT IN THE UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE INDUSTRY

Leather represents 60% of the total cost of a piece of furniture. The market share of leather furniture is increasing: as Chinese customers do not want to compromise between design and comfort, leather is a key differentiator. Sourcing and managing hides is a growing challenge for furniture manufacturers, so that having an integrated solution covering the entire process from quality-check on delivery to stock control after cutting is crucial.
The first stage in hide cutting is flaw identification. This stage has a major impact on the quality of the finished product. Time spent here means time and money saved later. Depending on the type of leather they use, Lectra gives manufacturers a choice of options: with the Versalis, hides can be scanned on delivery, so quality and area can be checked immediately, creating an accurate inventory.

The next step is nesting, one of the areas where significant material savings can be achieved. Here again, Lectra's customers can choose between automation or manual nesting with laser projection, depending on the quality level required of their finished goods.
Lectra’s LeatherSuite software uses the computerized inventory to test all possible combinations of hide and cutting sequence for a given work order to determine the ‘winning combination’. In addition, when scanning and digitizing are carried out on separate workstations, prior to cutting, Versalis multi-hide nesting software further increases material savings.

Watch Versalis in action

https://www.lectra.cn/sites/default/files/sections/videos/BLOC%203%20-%20VIDEO%20VERSALIS.mp4

LECTRA FACILITATES PROCESS OPTIMIZATION FOR FURNITURE MANUFACTURERS

In a fast-evolving context, furniture companies cannot maintain or increase profit margins unless they control the entire production process. Lectra is committed to help its customers reach their operational excellence objectives using personalized key performance indicators (KPIs) in a simple, automatic and visual format. Versalis tracks more than 2,000 different production criteria to create fully configurable production reports. They give an overall picture of the entire leather cutting room, essential for continuous improvement.

LECTRA LEATHER CUTTING ROOM MAXIMIZES SYSTEM AVAILABILITY, ENSURING QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE IN UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE MANUFACTURING

Global demand for leather is increasing while the quantity of available leather is decreasing, as the furniture industry competes with other sectors for leather procurement. This has caused leather prices to rocket. Manufacturers have to reduce waste to keep their margins. Lectra’s specific project approach ensures teams are productive quickly, supported by a complete range of tailored training. Service contracts guarantee maximum system availability with constant monitoring, predictive and preventive maintenance, reporting and quality control. These make Lectra the ideal choice to help achieve operational excellence.