Agile production from defect marking to leather cutting
You use strict processes to ensure that the interior components you deliver meet your OEM customers’ high quality standards and specifications. No matter what the order volume, you need to maintain the productivity level of your leather-cutting lines and keep operations running efficiently to stay on target and within budget.
A streamlined end-to-end process supported by the Versalis Automotive range can give you the agility and cost control you need, from defect marking to perfectly cut leather parts. Digitalized marking makes identifying flaws effortless—with fewer steps to carry out, no chalk dust, and no messy chalk remover.
Keep reading to find out how Versalis Automotive Digital Marking improves hide-marking accuracy, preserves premium leather quality and enables hide marking traceability through advanced data-driven capabilities.
Attract and retain a workforce of skilled operators
Chalk removal is a time-consuming task that can permanently damage premium leather hides. A manual, subjective task that depends heavily on operator skill level, chalk-based defect marking is difficult to measure in terms of individual performance.
Versalis Automotive Digital Marking allows suppliers to enhance their existing cutting process and offer a more stimulating work environment to their employees through technological upskilling.
The fully digital process promotes sustainable productivity as well as better overall working conditions, free of chalk dust and chemical remover. Two operators can work simultaneously on a single hide to achieve an even greater level of efficiency.
The state-of-the-art digital marking solution enables automated grading and improved nesting efficiency thanks to the ability to preload OEM requirements.
A real game-changer, ¹ú²úAV’s patented Leather Matching feature aligns the digital mapping of marked defects with leather hides once they have been placed on the cutting conveyor, dynamically adjusting buffer to cut around flaws.
Best practices in defect marking can be identified by using the Leather Reporting application to analyze and compare hide markings with leather-cutting data. This minimizes variability while improving cutting room performance, by benchmarking the number of defects identified and the rate of efficiency.
Get more from your existing leather-cutting lines
Digital hide marking saves precious time, especially when processing premium leather sensitive to handling. Chalk marks are unreliable because they can smudge, transfer or even rub off.
Following the cutting process, some chalk marks can be difficult to remove or even leave blemishes.
Marking hides digitally eliminates the need to remove chalk marks, saving considerable time and effort. This prevents errors, as faded chalk marks can lead to mistakes during cutting.
Digital marking furthermore enables an analysis of previously unavailable data to compare leather quality purchased and received, as well as marking performance by operator.
The digital marking process integrates seamlessly with the existing Versalis portfolio, for fully automated positioning of scanned and marked hides during cutting. The enhanced marking and cutting accuracy and reduced buffer enabled by Versalis Digital Marking also make it possible to re-scan a hide a second time to maximize the number of quality cut parts.
Continuously improve operations with hide marking traceability
With Versalis Digital Marking, suppliers can harness the power of data to enable a smarter, faster assessment, evaluation, and analysis of cutting room performance. The fully digital hide-marking process enables traceability through to cut part production.
These data can then be used for agile cut part production and stock management to reduce lead time and improve productivity.
A digital marking process improves the accuracy of defect identification and enables end-to-end data collection for optimal traceability for faster resolution of quality issues with suppliers.
This traceability informs decision-making and supports LEAN processes that lower production costs.
After cutting, the hide marking information is updated and can be re-applied with the same ease. Indexed hide-scanning and digital identification facilitate stock management, enabling suppliers to better control leather order costs and optimize material usage.
Gain greater business agility and control costs
Versalis Automotive Digital Marking preserves the quality of costly premium leather hides sensitive to marking. The hide grain and finish remain intact because the surface cannot be permanently altered by chalk marks or chemical cleaning solution.
¹ú²úAV’s digital marking solution enables material optimization by improving accuracy during marking, reducing buffer and waste.
Versalis Automotive Digital Marking also provides a clearer picture of actual leather quality, making it possible to better allocate hides to different applications.
No matter what the operator skill level at the hide-marking and leather-cutting stages, standardized processes, and automation ensure consistent quality at every step in the end-to-end process.
This enables greater business agility through digital processes that preserve hide quality while enabling suppliers to make the most of each costly, premium-grade hide.
Ready to switch from chalk marking to digital marking?
Watch our webinar to find out more
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