Lectra’s 2018 Furniture event brings the industry’s future into focus

The future (and present) is definitely 4.0. 

Analyses of shifts in the consumer and industry landscape showed how the demands for personalization, in both the residential and commercial sectors, as well as the continuing merger of online and offline retail worlds drive the need for more connected, data-driven solutions.

As made to order and small series production becomes the norm, demonstrations of Lectra’s Cutting Room 4.0 for Made to Order and workshops on made-to-order process optimization and digitalization of data flow illustrated the flexibility, efficiency and speed which Industry 4.0 technologies gives companies.

To demonstrate the efficiency of our Industry 4.0-compatible solutions, a ‘pop-up workshop’, with a prototype maker and a seamstress created, in real time, three different ottomans designed, developed and cut using only Lectra solutions.

Guest speakers, such as leather expert Dr. Mike Greenwood, and Ernst Esslinger, Director, Methods/Tools Systems at Homag—a reference of Industry 4.0 for the woodworking industry—stressed the importance of implementing Industry 4.0 along the supply chain. Ovidijus Jalonskis, CEO, Vilmers, one of the first adopters of the Cutting Room 4.0, shared how the new solution will enable his company to reduce the complexity of production planning of customized furniture and improve process efficiency. 

We also shared our vision for enabling mass-production companies to capture real-time data generated by connected cutting solutions in order to monitor shop floor and cutting line performance, worker productivity and changeover times, as well as the use of augmented reality for maintenance assistance.