OEM & ODM seat programmes
Marking, cover, fitted options, structure. Every request lands on one of them, and the layer names the workshop, the tooling and the days.
Start a Programme See the four layers
Who runs one
Two kinds of buyer arrive here, and the difference shows up in the first email rather than in how the work is run.
The ladder
Every custom seat here is a variant of a seat already in production. Four layers can differ from the catalogue model, and the one your request lands on tells you what it costs in time.
Your name and part identification on the cover and on the seat itself, in the position you dimension. Nothing structural moves, so this is the fastest of the four.
PVC or fabric, in the colour you specify, with the foam underneath built to the platform's density.
Flip-up or adjustable armrests, retractable belts, rail slides, presence switches and pressure sensors, height adjustment, swivel consoles and suspension variants.
Frame geometry, the mounting interface, backrest form, and the suspension band the seat sits in.
Ask where a change lands and the answer sorts your suppliers. A factory names a die, a fixture, a foam tool or a station.
A change is bounded because the seat it starts from is already in production.
What to send, what comes back
Each layer has an input and an answer that comes back against it. Sales owns the reply clocks, the assigned project engineer owns the build definition, and QC signs the first article before the line runs the order.
Send the layer you already know about; the rest is worked out in the reply.
| Layer | What you send | What comes back | Who signs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Marking | Artwork in a vector format, placement dimensioned on the seat, plus any part identification you need carried. | Confirmation of the position on the sample, then the same dimension checked at the first article. | Project engineer on the build definition. You on the sample. |
| 02 Cover and colour | The material, the colour reference, and whether the cab is washed down or works in sun. | What the platform carries as built, and what the change does to the schedule. | Project engineer on the build definition. |
| 03 Fitted options | The option list, and the connector type if the machine already has a presence circuit. | What the platform is built to take, and what it would take to add anything it is not. | Project engineer on the build definition. |
| 04 Dimensions and structure | Mounting measurements, clearance above and around the seating position, operator weight range, the duty it runs, and quantity per variant. | Within 48 hours of complete measurements: which models fit, which do not, and the dimension that decided each. Where nothing fits, which layer would have to move. | Project engineer on the build definition. You on the sample, fitted on the machine. |
Every enquiry, within 24 business hours, whichever layer it lands on.
Its own 48-hour clock, running from the day the measurements are complete.
QC signs it against the frozen sample at line start, before the run continues.
The four numbers
One clock starts when your email lands. The other starts only once the measurements are complete, because a fitment answer written against half a set of dimensions is a guess with a date on it.
A tooling step, where a change moves a die or a fixture, sits ahead of the sample and is quoted in days of its own.
Sales owns both clocks. The project engineer owns the build definition the sample is built against.
Where a programme starts
Programmes start on a model already in production rather than on a blank sheet. That is why a change is bounded, and why it is described layer by layer instead of quoted as a project.
KL01 gives 50 mm of suspension travel, 165 mm of fore-and-aft adjustment and a 50 to 130 kg weight range. YY53 gives 48 mm of travel over 40 to 120 kg.
KL02 is a mechanical high-back with full-body and head support. YS2-8 carries 80 mm of travel, 150 mm fore-and-aft, 60 mm of height adjustment and a backrest folding forward 27.5°.
KL03, YJ03 with air suspension on a 24 V supply, and YY08 cover tractors and self-propelled agricultural machines. YY70 covers ride-on mowers.
Six steps, each with a name against it
An OEM seat manufacturing programme runs in six steps. Every one has an input, something that comes back, a duration and a name against it.
A sample room piece proves a drawing was read. This one proves the line can repeat it.
The one step you decide
The frozen sample stays here as the reference the line is set up against, identified to your programme the way your tooling is.
This is the one step in OEM seat manufacturing where you decide rather than wait, and everything after it is a copy of what you sign. The sample is built on the line that will build your order, off the same stamping die, the same weld fixture and the same foam tool.
A named list, not a general impression. Anything outside it was never fixed, and those items are stated before you sign rather than after the second batch.
A repeat order is not re-read against your drawing. It is run against the frozen sample — same die, same fixture, same tool.
Measurements answer the fitment question well enough to choose a platform. Four things only the machine itself can settle:
Build the sample week into the programme schedule rather than around it.
The change is named, and the steps it re-opens are named with it. Being told beats discovering it at the first article, and it keeps your planned date honest.
Ask every supplier on your list where each requested change lands: a stamping die, a welding fixture, a foam tool, or a station on the assembly line.
The segment nobody quotes
Two of the three numbers in OEM seat manufacturing are ours. The middle one is yours, and on most programmes it runs longer than the other two.
Plan the middle column as weeks rather than days, and book the machine before the sample lands.
Set out in full at order shapes. On a range with several variants, settle the per-model threshold in the first week rather than the week the purchase order is written: it decides how many variants a first programme carries.
What stays yours
Tooling and fixtures you fund belong to you. They are held here, identified to your programme, and scheduled against your order and nothing else.
Dedicated dies and fixtures you fund are yours, held here and set up only from your own set.
Where the tooling is held, what happens to it when a programme ends, and whether it moves are settled on your written instruction.
Book a visit: the tooling racks, the fourteen machines in the test centre and the metallographic room are open to walk through.
Where the drawing goes
A drawing takes one route through this plant, and it is short enough to list station by station.
An NDA is signed when you ask for one, before your drawing arrives rather than after. The point of it is the file you have not sent yet.
Send the NDA ahead of the drawing and see whether it comes back signed before you have spent anything.
In the same email, ask for the drawing's route to be named station by station.
A plant that owns its stamping, welding, foaming and assembly can list those stations. A supplier who sends the work out cannot: the drawing goes out with it.
Evidence from the plant
A custom seat arrives without a catalogue specification sheet, so the evidence comes from the plant. During qualification you get photographs of all fourteen machines in the test centre, one at a time, so the equipment behind the claims is something you looked at.
When something fails
When a batch fails a test bench it is held whole, not released and watched.
Holding the batch rather than sorting it keeps a bad hour on one fixture from becoming two good boxes and one bad one on your shelf.
Four items start the trace on the day the mail arrives instead of the week after:
What it means for the seats already with you and the ones still on the line, with the correction agreed before anything is built again.
Copy this into your first email
Send this list and the first round is an answer rather than a request for more information.
The first six decide which platform models fit. The next four decide the build definition. The last two decide the date.
Measurements taken from the machine, not from the seat on it.
Where to read further
Measuring and matching in depth, across every machine family.
The test centre bench by bench, with the pass conditions.
What is available separately, with part-level lead times.
Choosing a suspension band against the duty the machine runs.
KL02 and YS2-8 on loaders, dozers, rollers and cranes.
KL03, YJ03 and YY08 on tractor cabs, with the supply check.
Other ranges: forklift seats, excavator seats, agricultural machinery seats and lawn mower seats.
One email, one round
Send the drawing or the measurements, the machine and its duty, the layers you need changed, and the quantity per variant. Back comes the platform candidates and the layer each of your changes lands on.
Within 24 business hours, naming the platform candidates.
Within 48 hours of your measurements arriving.
One piece in 7 days, off production tooling.
20 to 30 days from order confirmation.