Lens manufacture has become a global business with economy of scale and just-in-time logistics changing the land- scape of production. Those humble pieces of clear plastic that enable your patients to see are increasingly produced by megalabs in far flung coun- tries. You may then be surprised to know that a firm set up in 1937 is producing 8,000 lenses per day from a surprisingly small facility in the heart of Europe.
The factory Optiswiss made its home over 50 years ago is located just a 10-minute tram ride from Basel’s main railway station. Samuel Frei, Optiswiss chief executive officer, says producing lenses in one the of the most expensive places on earth makes perfect sense when you are producing the very best quality lenses. He says everything is optimised within the two storey building which is undergoing constant development and investment to increase efficiency and quality. Frei says partnership, authenticity and sustainability are the firm’s watchwords, something he now wants to bring to the UK market through its partnership with Deepcove Optical. ‘Independent opticians are absolutely our focus,’ he says adding that his ambition is to make Optiswiss the leading independent supplier in Europe to independent practices.
Optiswiss was founded in 1937 by two optician brothers called Fleming, their store, Ramstein, still operates in the city. The brothers wanted to ensure the supply
of lenses, something they feared the politi- cal situation in Europe would halt. Over the years Optiswiss retained its identity even though it counts American Optical and Zeiss among its owners. In 2014 the company was bought by members of the management team supported by a group of Swiss private investors. Their goal was for a sustainable investment with growth and they take a 100% independent approach, says Frei. Today Optiswiss is the largest producer of lenses in Switzerland employing just over 200 people, working across three 24-hour shifts, six-and-a-half hours per day – local laws do not allow for production during the day on a Sunday.
Despite his business background Frei’s roots are very much in optics. ‘I have optics a bit in my blood because my father’s business was in optical shops and a buying group in Switzerland so in the end I went back to my optical roots,’ he says. His time with Optiswiss started in 2011 with the firm’s ebusiness (B2B) department. Later roles in marketing and product management followed meaning he is familiar with most aspects of the business. He joined the board three years ago and become the CEO in August this year.
Optiswiss’s mantra is precision, quality and technology, something it invests heavily to maintain, says Frei. Spending on production has been maintained at €1.5m to €2m every year for the last 10 years along with €1m in R&D. Production is all carried out in Basel with the emphasis on a constant optimisation of the process with automation increasing to maintain volume from its small footprint. Frei says one of its advantages over the bigger multinationals is its ability to move quickly with customer demand both through its service standards and the design of its systems, production and lenses. This is achieved through its in-house team of design engineers.
This manifests itself in the quality mix of the products produced says Frei, who explains that of its daily 8,000 lenses over half are varifocal designs and 99% of the output is coated. Optiswiss also has technologies it says put it ahead of the field. It offers a broad suite of individualised lenses such as its be 4ty+ S-Fusion Premium + which has 40,000 calculation points on a free form surface but also maps the position between the points in 3D resulting in 320,000 connections. The S-Fusion in-house design also places the toric component of the prescription to provide greater wearer comfort and better transition between viewing zones. ‘Most of our progressives are individualised or highly individualised,’ he adds. Coatings are another speciality. Alongside anti-reflective, UV blocking, hydrophobic and oleophobic treatments it claims to have the world’s most reflection-free coating in Optiplas O+. In an effort to lead the market, Optiswiss offers other touches such as laser engraving of each products’ unique device identification (UDI) number into the S-Fusion logo. By 2023 every EU medical device will have to include its own UDI to enable traceability. ‘We already did this before the directive was announced to aid authenticity, quality and traceability,’ says Frei. For sports Optiswiss has developed the IBS lens while in the luxury sector it has Pure Diamond lenses which feature diamond and zirconia within the lens.
OCCUPATIONAL OFFERING
Optiswiss is also bucking the trend towards organic lenses by continuing to develop its glass lenses with freeform designs. Frei says the market share of mineral is around 6-7% in Europe and there is demand in the UK, albeit at a much lower level. ‘Fewer and fewer manufacturers are proposing the products but we did the opposite two years ago and invested in mineral with a complete freeform range.’ Optiswiss also offers its designs for polycarbonate and Trivex lenses. Another area of specialisation is in the occupational sector which is being driven by the use of digital technology. ‘It’s a growing area and where we see big potential because of the comfort for the wearer. The percentage of progressive wearers that have specialist computer lenses is much too low,’ he adds. To underline the confidence in its quality it offers a three-year warranty on its Optiplas coating.
Production is carried out over two floors. The ground floor houses the start and end processes of semi-finished product, blocking and taping along with edging, mounting and despatch. On the upper floor are all the processes in between. All orders are received via an online ordering system, says Frei, this means the jobs can be sense checked before work starts. Once picked the lenses are married up with a printed job sheet and a tray which is syn- chronised using an RF chip. Frei says the printed ticket is important to enable staff to check the job throughout production if needed.
There are currently 10 lines, two for mineral lenses and the rest for organic. Automation has been introduced for taping, orientation and movement of trays, de-taping and some quality checking. The next phase of development will see the two floors seamlessly link by conveyor systems. All machinery is state of the art with multi-headed generators and blockless edgers speeding throughput. Despite its compact size Frei is confident the current site could reach production of 12,000 lenses a day if required but, he says, improving the quality mix of what is produced is a better measure of expansion.
Keeping up with the latest trend has been aided by links with local equipment manufacturers. ‘We have been working very closely with Satisloh for many years,’ says Frei. ‘It’s also a Swiss company, we have a development cooperation with them for many, many, years they are testing and optimising new machines and processes within our factory. We often have engineers from Satisloh here.’ This means Optiswiss often gets to try new machinery first. Frei seems confident that Essilor’s investment in Satisloh would not have a detrimental effect as Satisloh continues its independence. He also says the production environment at Optiswiss in unlike anywhere else because of the range of materials and designs on one site. Frei says it is great to have the input and the know-how. The only generating machines that are not Satisloh are for mineral lens production, a process that takes eight times as long as for organic materials. The tinting area is huge and relies heavily on skilled, female technicians, who possess the colour perception needed to offer consistent and accurate colouring. ‘This is one of the most demanding process and it’s very difficult to automate,’ he adds.
Coating is another area of expertise Frei says sets Optiswiss apart. It is carried out in six high vacuum chambers – four high capacity, two smaller – with lenses having up to 14 layers per side producing a range of properties with reflection levels down to 0.2%. The glazing department edges and mounts up to 1,700 pairs each day. All of the staff in this area are qualified opticians, something Frei says shows through in the quality of the output.
GETTING THE MESSAGE ACROSS
Frei is passionate about the made in Switzerland quality of the product but accepts that to fully understand what that means people need to try the product. Another hidden quality is the firm’s green credentials such as sustainability. ‘It’s omnipresent in the production but you cannot see it or feel it.’ This covers water recycling, energy use, including solar and heat recovery from the production machinery, he says. ‘The oil consumption is zero today.’ The plastic swarf waste generated from the blanks is shipped to a specialist recycling and disposal company.
Frei accepts that in a world dominated by lens giants it can be hard for a ‘mid-sized’ company to make its mark. What it can do is build strong relationships with its customers to protect their independence. ‘What we have today is that we are flexible, fast, and we can react quickly to customer needs and that gives us the chance to be very close to the customer. We don’t have 10 hierarchies to ask when writing a business plan,’ says Frei. The firm also holds workshops with customers to get feedback. They also have about 600 customers who visit each year to see the production and talk to the staff and understand the DNA of the company.
‘The real proof is the end product, but seeing the high level and precise nature of the facility across all of the technologies it employs and working efficiently. As a mid-sized lens company, and one of the last remaining after recent rounds of consolidation, we have to be faster, more flexible and innovative. More importantly from a service perspective we want to be a partner of the optician, we don’t just want to be a supplier.’
He says the verticalisation that has taken place in the market is making opticians ask themselves a lot of questions. ‘To whom do I work with, who is your owner and are you really independent? At the moment this is the big opportunity for us,’ he says.
The elephant in the room is having a dominant player in lenses, frames and now retail, but Frei says calling out names is not the way to do business. ‘I don’t think it is the right approach to point the finger. You have to demonstrate the advantage by doing better.’ He says this is the Swiss approach. ‘Our way of doing business is very down to earth and we will not change. We have to be dynamic and to adapt but we will stay with our core values.’