Faurecia Selects VISTAGY Seat Design Environment™ Software to Streamline Engineering of Seat Trim for Automotive Interiors

Companies form technology partnership to improve software tools and related engineering processes for designing and manufacturing automotive interiors

WALTHAM, MA, (USA) — VISTAGY, Inc., a leading global provider of specialized engineering software, today announced that Faurecia, the eighth-largest automotive supplier in the world, has purchased VISTAGY Seat Design Environment™ (SDE) for use in its engineering operations in the United States as well as northern and southern Europe. While the initial purchase of SDE will be used to enhance the engineering of seat trim in automotive interiors, the companies plan to work together to improve software applications and related engineering methodologies for designing and manufacturing foam, seat assemblies and entire automotive interiors.

The SDE is the first seat design software application that addresses the entire seat engineering process and is fully integrated into commercial CAD systems. With the SDE, engineers can accurately capture all aspects of seat design, including trim cover, sew lines, attachments to foam and frame, and hardware data for airbags or heating systems. The software also performs conformance simulation and generates flat patterns from the 3D CAD model. Seat manufacturers can capture information and detail in one 3D model, make design changes quickly and early in the development process, and share information across distributed engineering teams working concurrently on seat systems.

“We’re in a highly competitive market that demands that we get new seat designs to market faster than ever before,” said Thilo Ludewig, vice president of R&D for the Seating Product Group at Faurecia. “In the short term, VISTAGY’s role as an industry leader in seat trim tools and the compelling attributes of SDE will enable us to increase the efficiency and control of our engineering and prototyping processes. In the longer term, the cooperative planning and development of future SDE-related functionality will provide us with a significant competitive advantage.”

“We’re pleased to be working and partnering with one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers to help them enhance their seat trim processes,” said Ed Bernardon, vice president of business development for VISTAGY. “The key to making design and manufacturing engineering more efficient is creating specialized environments that are made specifically to deal with the rigors of the seat trim environment. By partnering with Faurecia, we’ll be able to use their ‘real world’ input to assure that SDE will enable manufacturers to overcome the most difficult challenges of seat trim design. It is truly a win-win partnership.”

About Faurecia
Faurecia is a world-leading automotive supplier specializing in four major activities: seats, vehicle interiors, front ends and exhaust systems. In 2007, Faurecia posted sales of 12.7 billion euros, making it the eighth largest automotive supplier in the world. It operates in 28 countries and employs 60,000 people at 190 sites. Faurecia is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris stock exchange. Fore more information, visit www.faurecia.com.