Automotive seats specialist Adient claims a new innovation, ModuTec, smartly redefines how vehicle seats are manufactured.

ModuTec is described as a modular seat design solution intended to greatly simplify the seat build process and enable higher levels of automation. Adient says ModuTec was developed after in-depth analysis of the needs of automakers, manufacturing locations and consumers.

With the ModuTec assembly process, build of the seat module happens offline and is then seamlessly sequenced into the main JIT line, reducing assembly time from minutes to seconds, Adient claims. This, it says, means Adient's new solution can help achieve higher efficiency, lower costs, and enable automation in ‘ways the industry has not yet seen’.

Modular design

Adient points out that the traditional manufacturing of vehicle seats relies on complex and integrated processes that are relatively labour intensive. It claimed by Adient that ModuTec's use of modularity revolutionises the seat assembly approach for a number of benefits:

• Enhanced assembly efficiency
• Simplified production workflows
• Enables automation / reduced floor space
• Enhanced seat comfort
• Enables modularity / component integration
• Allows for craftsmanship and warranty improvements
• Enables easier serviceability / dealer upgrades

"ModuTec will fundamentally change how seats are made going forward. By balancing all aspects of cost efficiency, engineering criteria and manufacturing best practices, ModuTec is a bold step in the direction the industry needs today and into tomorrow," said Griffin Brown, Adient's vice president of VAVE, Innovation, Mechanisms BU, Americas.