Zeiss Vision Care president Jens Boy, holding scissors, and Barry Lannon, vice president of operations at Zeiss Vision Care U.S. (r), flank Kentucky state and local officials at the official opening of its new Customer Experience Center in Hebron, Ky.
 
HEBRON, Ky.—The “Zeiss Customer Experience”, featuring a model eyecare practice and optical store of the future, was on full display Wednesday, as Zeiss Vision Care executives welcomed visitors to the company’s new, 2,500-square foot Zeiss Vision Center showroom here. “We invite eyecare practitioners from across the country to visit our new facility so they can then open their own Zeiss Vision Center and provide a unique customer-centric experience for their patients,” said Jens Boy, president of Zeiss Vision Care U.S., who spoke to a group of invited guests and took part in a ribbon cutting ceremony, along with Kentucky state and local officials.

Zeiss completed construction of the Customer Experience Center last month. Located at the company’s new U.S. headquarters in Hebron, the showroom features the architectural design of a Zeiss Vision Center,  including Zeiss diagnostic equipment, and Zeiss Consumer Optics products such as binoculars, which are also sold at many Zeiss Vision Centers.
 



Zeiss Vision Care’s Jens Boy welcomes guests at the company’s newly expanded facility in Hebron, Ky.
A dedicated educational space within the new facility spotlights Zeiss’ contribution to optical innovation throughout history. Among the highlights on display are replicas of Zeiss camera equipment used on the 1969 Apollo moon landing, custom-made cataract lenses that Zeiss designed for artist Claude Monet and cameras used to shoot Hollywood movies.
 
 
The consultation area within the Zeiss Customer Experience Center features Zeiss' patented "Eye in the Sky" design.
 



The Zeiss Customer Experience Center incorporates Zeiss' modular design elements with locally-sourced components such as these walnut panels.
Zeiss also unveiled its updated, paperless laboratory, which recently completed a multi-year, $20 million construction project at the Hebron facility. The modernized facility has implemented Industry 4.0 manufacturing concepts, using automation, robotics and big-data machine learning that will enable the rapid production of premium Zeiss lenses.
 
Zeiss currently employs about 400 people in Hebron and plans to add another 75, making it one of the largest employers in the region.
 
Click here to take a self-guided tour of the new Zeiss facility, and watch for VMAIL’s exclusive video interview with Jens Boy.