The world leader in integrated technology solutions dedicated to industries using soft materials, leather, technical textiles and composite materials, recently announced improving their Design to Cost approach to product development that draws on design, pattern-making, marker-making and 3D prototyping technologies and expertise.
Lectra has developed the most advanced specialized software and cutting systems and provides associated services to a broad array of markets such as fashion, automative, furniture, aeronautical and marine industries, wind power and personal protective equipment. Within 2012, they have served about 23,000 customers in over 100 different countries, receiving $256 million in revenue.
“The decisions that are made in design have an impact to final garment cost, but this often isn’t apparent until the production phase. With holistic Design to Cost approach supported by Lectra, companies now have the capacity to take production constraints into account early on in design,” said Antoine Mercier, Product Manager of Lectra. “What used to be manual, time-consuming and rife with errors, has become a more streamlined process that enables companies to evaluate the impact that both style and fabric design have on material consumption, before production commitments are made.”
Lectra has opened the door to faster and more realistic evaluation of possible production scenarios with its core product design and development technologies and allowing for more fluid exchange of visual and technical information. Diamino V6 has become the main component of Lectra’s Design to Cost approach, the new pre-costing and marker-making solution. It allows fabric to be visualized on costing and production markers to help companies better anticipate and control material consumption. During the conceptualization phase, a period in which many ideas a proposed, challenged and reworked, material consumption is often only very roughly estimated. Visual fabric layout increases accuracy and cuts out manual labor.
“It allows us to exchange information faster and to more quickly identify potential problems before production,” said Nicolas Drevet, Head of Production Methods at French lingerie company, Lise Charmel.
Design to Cost is especially useful for companies that work with engineered print and complex or intricate fabrics. They are able to import sketches, graphics or scanned fabrics from the design department to evaluate production scenarios before fabric is ordered, printed or cut. If changes need to be made in design to reduce costs at the production end, Diamino V6’s visual capacities make it easier to communicate across departments quickly and accurately to keep development moving forward.
“At a time when companies are striving to remain competitive, materials represent a significant percentage of the cost of a garment, companies therefore need to manage material usage effectively in order to preserve and increase their margins,” said Anastasia Charbin, Director of Marketing Fashion for Lectra. “Lectra’s Design to Cost approach, which combines design, product development and marker-making solutions, allows companies to analyze the cost of final garments and then use that information to make important business decisions in the design and product development phases.”
Non-specialist profiles like product manager, cutting room managers, research departments and product development teams can now have access to this information. Fabric can also be visualized in the marker layout to enhance the impact of fabric choices to cost, while providing clear visual instructions on repeat placement and orientation. “We now better control material consumption and cost and have improved our ability to foresee problems,” said Davide Lunardon, CAD Manager, Staff International, part of the group Only The Brave.
“I can see exactly here the markers are going to fall on the print. If it doesn’t work out, I can make my recommendations to the print department before the screen is send out and costs are committed to,” said Alex Canoro, Head of Marker making at American dress company, Maggy London.
By Pia Talwar