Accurate Optical, a six-unit optical chain based in Salisbury, Maryland, recently entered the digital lens-manufacturing arena when it installed Gerber Coburn’s Advanced Lens Processing System (ALPS) and a Simplimatic automation module in its central lab. The ALPS system consists of a Gerber Coburn DTL200 generator paired with two MAAT polishers. Accurate Optical also changed the lab’s blocking process from a wax based “freebond” to alloy.

The addition of the new hardware and technology required an improvement in the lab’s Lab Management System (LMS), company CEO Stephen L. Franklin pointed out. “After installing the new equipment and interfacing with various manufacturer’s software suites, we decided to add C.C. Systems’ Labzilla to our lab to better integrate our digital capabilities into our lab,” he said.

Accurate Optical’s regional manager Robert Murphy (l) and CEO Stephen Franklin, inspect their lab’s new Gerber Coburn DTL200 generator.

Some changes to the lab’s workflow were also necessary, Franklin noted. “By adding the DTL200, our cut-to-polish time has been greatly reduced, and although we now have the additional curing time for the alloy, we are able to continue providing same or next day service to all of our locations as before. Some minor construction was necessary to allow for power and other infrastructure improvements such as air, water, drainage, and IT/network connectivity, and we made a minor modification to one wall to allow for passage of a conveyor that runs from our blocker to the generator.”

Inventory management has been improved since Accurate’s lab went digital. “By expanding the range of possible finished prescriptions from a much smaller group of SKUs we have been able to reduce our lens inventory by 60 percent,” Franklin said. “We still stock multiple materials and lenses with various options, but we stock many fewer lenses of each type because our manufacturing capabilities allow us to make many more prescriptions from a single lens blank.”

The new technology also helped Accurate reduce its labor costs. “It is a horrible time to lay off productive members of your team, but this technology created such efficiency in our operation, that we were able to reduce our manufacturing team from nine full-time employees to five,” said Franklin. “The transition was challenging, but now that the dust is settling, we are finding that we have the right number of associates in our lab and the payroll savings is being applied to the debt service financing for the equipment purchase.”

Lab technicians Linda Strouth (l) and Tracy Holloway, check lenses being loaded into a Gerber Coburn DTL200 generator.

The digital technology allows Accurate Optical to produce the Seiko Pentax Perfas line of digital lenses, while continuing to produce conventional single vision, bifocal and progressive lenses. Franklin said Accurate Optical has been able to control its branded choices by controlling its inventory.

Accurate Optical’s capital investment for going to the digital system was around $600,000, including minor infrastructure improvements and construction modifications, according to Franklin.

“This manufacturing improvement will increase our margins on the sale of digital product by around $50 per pair,” he said. “Prior to the installation, we were selling around 350 pairs of digital progressives monthly. By lowering our manufacturing costs, reducing personnel costs, and improving the turnaround time to our locations, we have generated positive cash flow in the manufacturing division from the first day.”

Yet Franklin cautions that a lab’s decision of whether or not to go digital must be made on a case-by-case basis. “This particular solution made sense for us because our traditional equipment was aging, and we were looking at a significant capital investment anyway,” he said.

“It was the perfect time to make a slightly larger investment and become the first independent optometric group practice to have this capability in house. Is this approach for everyone? Absolutely not. Practices should look at their production and their margins and arrive at a decision that makes sense for them,” Franklin advised. ■ ■