Case Study: Freedman Seating Company achieves faster lead times and 50% fewer parts with Solid Edge

Moving from SolidWorks to Solid Edge improves the design process while ensuring data compatibility with customers and suppliers

Freedman Seating Company, a US manufacturer of bus, rail and specialty vehicle seating, faced very short lead times and a large number of product variants that 2D workflows could no longer handle. To enable virtual prototyping and better design-data management, the company moved from SolidWorks to Solid Edge software (including the Insight design data management tools), purchasing 24 Solid Edge licenses shared among 30 users to support 3D modeling of sheet metal, weldments and complex foam contours.

Solid Edge delivered stronger assembly modeling, sheet‑metal and weldment capabilities, Parasolid kernel compatibility for easy data exchange, and built‑in Insight PDM, enabling virtual mockups, FEA-based validation and greater design reuse. As a result, Freedman Seating Company now meets short lead times more reliably, replaces physical prototypes with virtual testing, exchanges data easily with customers and analysts, and has reduced part count by 50%, accelerating development and production—benefits achieved with Solid Edge.

Freedman Seating Company

Pasquale Di Rico

New Products Engineering Manager