Digital technology will change automotive interiors, is your cutting room ready to produce the living room on wheels? 

Industry experts agree the automotive interior will soon replicate the comforts and design of a living space. This new direction towards luxury and comfort, often described as a “living room on wheels,” is increasing demand for small series production and the consumer expectation for high quality products delivered with greater speed, efficiency and innovation. 

The problem with enhancing automotive interiors to become the spaces where people spend luxury time is that design and production will now require collaborating with other disciplines, such as lighting, sound and video technology. All of which adds greater levels of complexity to the design process, increases pressure on delivery times, and shrinks acceptable margins of waste. 

The solution to remaining competitive during this transformation of automotive interiors is to keep up with demand for mass-customization and small-series production by developing processes to increase agility and flexibility in the value chain.  

In digitalizing their cutting room, vehicle interior manufacturers are able to strike the right balance of production, operation and cost management optimization to overcome the challenges of small series production to adapt quickly to the future of automotive interior manufacturing. 
 

Discover how a digital cutting room enables Tier-1 automotive suppliers to outpace their competition 

1 - Boost profits by designing-for-manufacturing:

The digital cutting room enables product development teams to design products that are easy to manufacture, reducing product complexity to easily manage non-standard processes and handle more types of fabrics. The result is producing products faster at a lower cost.
 

2 - Reduce operational costs by scaling capacity to correspond to fluctuations  in demand:

With a digital cutting room, executives are able to plan production based on incoming orders and respond to unpredictable, urgent and last minute order requests without issue. The result of using a digital cutting room to manage demand fluctuation is a reduction in staffing, die-tools, power consumption, transportation and storage costs and a marked increase in production capacity flexibility.
 

3 - Optimize the bidding process by making accurate cost simulations: 

By embracing digitalization, automotive executives are able to maximize material consumption and minimize fabric waste by designing-to-cost, optimizing patterns according to material or trim requirements, and cutting markers with zero-buffer.  
 

4 - Accelerate delivery by improving inventory management and supply chain communication:

The digital cutting room enables executives to reduce lead-time and accelerate delivery by improving inventory management and communication across the supply chain. The use of digital technology enables auto manufacturers to simulate designs and share these designs with third-party suppliers in real-time to ensure that components fit correctly and prevent delays in delivery time.
 

5 - Increase production capacity by improving operational efficiency:

Cutting room digitalization empowers executives to boost the efficiency of their cutting machines, materials and the performance of their employees. Sensors, optics and automation capabilities facilitate predictive maintenance; enable real-time monitoring of material usage, and re-directs employees to more valuable tasks. 
 

6 - Maintain quality performance by ensuring traceability across the supply chain: 

Quality during production and distribution is dependent on end-to-end transparency throughout the supply chain and real-time communication between cutting equipment, software, employees and third party partners. The digital cutting room organizes supply chain processes to work better together to achieve product quality and consistency throughout the entire production process. The reward is retaining existing contracts, winning new contracts and growing market share. 

To be a trusted, long-term partner, in automotive manufacturing means embracing market changes and investing early in new technology to stay ahead of the curve. The companies that move first to simplify and connect their design-to-production processes to communicate and collaborate efficiently will be successful in facing the challenges of small series production and any future transformations in the industry.