- This unique and powerful cut-order planning and optimizing software 
improves production processes and material utilization to increase profitability -

Paris, February 15, 2008 – Lectra, the world leader in integrated technology solutions dedicated to the soft goods industries, announces the new version of Optiplan, the most powerful and comprehensive cut-order planning and optimizing software.

Thanks to Optiplan’s new features, manufacturers in the fashion and furniture markets can successfully combine extraordinarily powerful, algorithm-based software with the most 
up-to-date process methodologies to significantly optimize production processes and material utilization from the planning stage through to the production floor. As a result, they will considerably maximize cost accuracy and dramatically increase efficiency to improve their profitability.

Optiplan incredibly improves cutting room management

Today, optimization of processes in the cutting room is a key factor for apparel and furniture producers, as well as for industrial fabrics users.
Optiplan is the best solution to fully integrate the cutting room’s “islands of technology” into one unique process, incorporating ERP, plotting, CAD and CAM systems to accelerate planning, costing and cutting processes.

When combined with a fabric management system, Optiplan’s algorithm-based automatic planning feature allows the definition of marker lists according to the availability of material from stock. Manufacturers can easily enter, edit and view fabric roll information in order to improve the efficiency of material usage.

“Optiplan allows us to do our costing and our control of the yield to have the leading edge over those who are not using it as a tool. It is definitely a tool to be used in every cutting room,” said Andrew Sia, Chairman and CEO, ACE Style Group, one of Asia’s largest manufacturers of intimate apparel.

Optiplan radically reduces material consumption and optimizes manufacturing processes

Today, manufacturers operate in a very competitive business environment that makes it increasingly difficult to achieve profit objectives. Optiplan is the most efficient solution to fulfill an order and achieve material savings of up to 5%, sometimes even more.

Through sophisticated new algorithms, this unique software tests a large variety of size, model and marker combinations respecting material and cutting-room parameters, such as fabric widths, table length, production equipment, labor quantity and costs. Thanks to Optiplan, manufacturers no longer need to choose between quality and fabric consumption, but can achieve the best of both worlds.
Optiplan can simulate a range of different planning and manufacturing scenarios, immediately showing the impact of each scenario on costs and production time ― down to the unit level. With Optiplan, marker planning can be done automatically in minutes, radically increasing the time available for improving marker efficiency. Before using Optiplan, planners traditionally spent 40% of their time on marker planning and 60% on marker making.

“The new version of Optiplan allows us to optimize DiaminoExpert, Lectra’s marker-making software. We can now assign different nesting times for markers in the same list with a click of a mouse, which really speeds up the process of managing marker lists. The new Optiplan also allows us to generate working lists for our new VectorFashionFX cutter, which definitely accelerates our production rhythm,” said Miguel Lopes, Cutting Room Manager, Petratex.

Optiplan delivers the selected scenarios to spreading and cutting equipments as executable plans, considerably reducing errors downstream and minimizing unnecessary costs and waste. Consistent data results in more cost-effective and consistent cutting ― and uniformly higher-quality products.

Beyond being the most effective cost simulator and planning tool, Optiplan is a genuine decision-making solution

Optiplan enables in-house production, contracting, and full-package sourcing operations to precisely calculate material consumption for costing and purchase management.
Moreover, orders and related data can be easily exported and rapidly transferred from one Optiplan station to another. This feature is extremely useful for clients working with remote production sites which are also equipped with Optiplan. Thanks to Optiplan, data exchange is easier and more secure than ever.

To date, more than 480 Optiplan systems have been installed in 49 countries all over the world.