Lectra recently showcased its “Furniture on Demand” enhanced with Lectra’s Valia platform to industry insiders.
TW Special Report
Recently, Lectra welcomed industry insiders to an exclusive furniture event showcasing “Furniture on Demand” with Valia at Lectra’s Experience Center in Atlanta, Ga. The event showcased the new Valia platform, which was announced earlier this year. When the product was introduced, Maximilien Abadie, Lectra’s chief strategy officer and chief product officer, explained that Lectra was continuing to innovate Furniture on Demand by enhancing the solution with Valia — a digital production preparation and planning platform for upholstered furniture. “Furniture On Demand by Lectra connects all the components in the cutting room and facilitates order and production data processing,” Abadie noted. “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.”
Experience Center
Guests were welcomed to the insider event by Lectra President Americas Lenny Marano who kicked-off the event with a brief history of Lectra’s leadership in bringing advanced technology solutions to the industry through the years.
Cindy Hodnett, Furniture Today’s executive editor, Home+Design, brought the guests up-to-speed with a presentation titled “The Future is Now: The new reality of home furnishings.” She illustrated trends that set the stage for driving Industry 4.0 and new ways to manufacture.
Marano then led a panel discussion featuring Lectra’s Global Senior Vice President Business Development Furniture & Automotive Olivier Nold; Senior Vice President of Customer Success, Americas John Brearley; and CSM Director Christine Fox. The panel covered various topics including “Why Lectra implemented 4.0 solutions,” how it helps customers and how Lectra is expanding the offering.
Product Marketing Director Clementine Mitard explained what Valia is and how it works, emphasizing the overarching achievements possible with Valia — removing complexity and dependence on expertise, while providing visibility and control regardless of upholstery type or production volumes.
In-Depth Demo
Luis Magna, Lectra’s Technical Sales director, Manufacturing, got to the heart of the matter with a Valia demonstration creating several orders for sofas with varied requirements including multiple orders and matched upholstery patterns. Magna’s presentation explained cutting solutions for made-to-order, mass customization and mass production.
Live Equipment
Lean Business Consultant Jerin Xavier and Presales Consultant Gilberto Nava then demonstrated the cutting process on the VIRGA single-ply fabric cutting line and the Vector low- and high-ply fabric cutting line.
Guests were able to move about the equipment and spend one-on-one time with Lectra staff asking more technical questions and exploring the possibilities of the new technology for their own operations.
The Porsche Experience
Finally, guests transferred to the Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta for a tour of the Porsche Museum as well as a presentation by Porsche Consulting Manager Simon Tabke titled, “Industry 4.0 &Factory of The Future: The Journey to The Smart Factory at Scale.”
Tabke explained Porsche’s manufacturing challenges in the 1980s and how these issues led to the company’s adoption of current manufacturing processes. Tabke was joined by Michael Kopacko, associate partner, Porsche Consulting, who explained how Porsche took this knowledge and has been able to help clients adopt a process to move forward with the Industry 4.0 concept in a wide range of industries harnessing Porsche’s knowledge of the “Power of the Digital Transformation.”
Attendees were treated to the Porsche Ride Experience accompanying professional drivers on a closed-circuit course pushing the limits of the latest Porsche offering, as it happened, in the rain.
More Than Furniture
The event showcased Lectra’s commitment to support the evolution of fashion, automotive and furniture manufacturers by providing technical solutions with the potential to assist the transition to an efficient and sustainable Industry 4.0 business.
The Valia digital production preparation and planning platform is one step further into the future of supporting new ways to manufacture that embrace made-to-order, mass customization and mass production.
The Porsche Experience
The Furniture on Demand group ended the day of exploring Lectra’s 4.0 solutions with final presentations and networking at Atlanta’s Porsche Experience Center. Porsche Consulting Manager Simon Tabke and Associate Partner Michael Kopacko presented an overview of Smart Factory concepts developed during Porsche’s own Smart Factory transformation.
A video titled “REPLAY | PORSCHE SMART FACTORY BEST PRACTICES” is available on lectra.com for further exploration of Porsche’s journey. The video features a discussion between Porsche Consulting and Lectra focused on Smart Factory concepts and Industry 4.0 best practices. Lectra notes: “Aligned with Lectra’s Industry 4.0 digital cutting room approach, Porsche Consulting has helped enterprises across industries transform different parts of their manufacturing to accelerate how they perform.”
2024 Quarterly Volume III
