American Leatherx Selects NESTERwood™ - New Software Promises to Improve Frame Cutting Processes

Furniture World Magazine

Nester Software Technologies Inc., the leading global developer of material utilization process optimization solutions for manufacturers working with fabrics, foams, plastics, sheet metals, technical textiles, and wood, reports that American Leather L.P. has selected its NESTERwood‰ material and cutting optimization software solution for implementation in their Dallas-based furniture frame-cutting operations. American Leather is a fast-growing, privately held manufacturer of high-end, custom made leather furniture sold through a network of independent retailers. Founded in 1990 by two senior manufacturing consultants, the company today employs about 300 people at their single manufacturing location in Dallas, TX. American Leather offers customers 13 different styles of leather in over 70 different colors, all built to customer's individual requirements and shipped in 2-3 weeks. The company produces an average of 250 pieces of furniture per day in two shifts. This focus on providing customers with what they want - when they want it, has rewarded American Leather with rapid growth as recognized by a place on the Dallas 100 list of the area’s fastest growing companies (1996-2002) and Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest growing US corporations (1997). The company is currently constructing a new, expanded 250,000 square-foot facility in Dallas and projects double-digit growth over the next five years. A major enabler to the company’s success is a firm commitment to leveraging innovative automated equipment and software throughout their operations. After implementing a total of four automated Thermwood and Komo CNC routers in their frame cutting operations over the past five years, American Leather looked to improve on their original CNC programming software to better optimize router programming and gain better nesting efficiency. Following a thorough evaluation of available products, including extensive testing on actual production products, the company selected NESTERwood. NESTERwood is currently being implemented in a first production line, with full implementation planned for all production lines as router equipment and processes in those lines are also updated. "Our evaluation showed that NESTERwood beat the others, producing frame nests that were several percent points (3-5%) more efficient on average", stated Chris Thompson, Engineering Information Systems Administrator at American Leather. “The deciding factor for us was plain and simple – savings in raw materials is the bottom line. As we consume in excess of $1 million in wood sheets per year, several percentage points of material utilization improvement adds up to big savings for us. In addition, NESTERwood enables us to do some things with our routers that were not possible before. We expect that NESTERwood will become the only software we need for frame-cutting.” Commenting on the selection by American Leather, Steven McLendon, President of Nester Software Technologies said, “We look forward to a long partnership with this innovative company, which is recognized as a leader in the furniture industry and one that fully leverages technology to meet its business goals. This opportunity supports our commitment to the development of advanced solutions that provide increased financial value to our customers through total optimization of the furniture frame processes.” About Nester Software Technologies: Nester Software Technologies, Inc., (NSTI) has offices in Waleska (Atlanta), Georgia and Tel Aviv, Israel. Dr. Moshe Ben-Bassat, an internationally renowned scientist and technologist, founded NSTI in 1983. Dr. Ben-Bassat holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics and has successfully developed and marketed advanced, real-life computer applications for the automotive, garment, furniture, military/aerospace and other industries. The company specializes in the application of advanced Artificial Intelligence to process optimization including order scheduling, nesting/material utilization, and cutting optimization. The company develops fully automatic, industry-specific software tools that utilize unique algorithmic technology to optimize processes while achieving maximum raw material and resource utilization. NESTER automatically saves time and materials.