Lectra’s cut order optimisation technology helped improve material consumption by 10-15 per cent and throughput by approximately 20 per cent at Art Stone, a designer and producer of dance apparel.
The solution provided flexibility and responsiveness in the manufacturing process, while also allowing Art Stone to keep production close to consumers and achieve shorter time-to-market.
“This helped the company focus on increasing market share and expanding its presence in Europe, Asia and Australia,” a press release from Lectra explained by saying.
Art Stone needed a production process that could handle the intricate fabrics that sets it apart from the competition.
Adding to the complexity was the fact that of the company’s 800 styles, 600 change on a yearly basis and they run the full range from children’s costumes to high end performance attire.
Art Stone needed to overcome these challenges and achieve fast turnaround times with shorter production runs to meet demand, all while still being cost effective.
The technology from Lectra helped Art Stone, better material consumption by 10-15 per cent and throughput by around 20 per cent.
“Manufacturing dance attire can be tricky; each design uses four to eight fabrics, some of which are challenging such as brocade, which tends to ravel easily,” Art Stone too explained.
“The nature of our business calls for a certain level of flexibility and responsiveness in our manufacturing process,” it added.
“We rely on shorter production runs but still need to operate in a cost effective manner to keep our current price point even in the face of rising fabric expenses,” the dance attire producer added.
Lectra recommended Optiplan, a cut order optimisation solution, which features powerful order planning algorithms that balance spreading, cutting and offloading activities.
It also takes into account production constraints such as fabric costs, labour rates, table lengths and ply heights after which, the system identifies the most efficient and cost effective approach.
Prior to adopting Lectra’s Optiplan, Art Stone had three CAD designers creating markers full time, while a large contingent of operators spread and cut the fabric prior to assembly.
Now, the company has been able to reduce the number of employees operating each cutter by half and has redirected the CAD designers to other areas of the business.
“The solution has helped improve our production efficiency and our average marker efficiency rose from 70 to 80 per cent, and our cutting productivity has increased by 30 to 50 per cent on a daily basis,” Art Stone noted.
“In one year, we covered the cost of the technology in fabric savings alone and now have the resources needed tofocus on growth activities,” it observed.
