Labs used to be noisy, messy places. The clatter of tray-laden trollies vied with rattling conveyor belts and the rush of the trademark white cooling water sloshing through wastepipes. Not so in the modern lab like Hoya’s in Wrexham.
Hoya has cemented its position as a leader in lens technology but it now sees its labs as much as a training tool and an ambassador of its abilities. The plant, once a factory for world-wide stock lens production, now welcomes practices through its doors to tour production processes and learn within a newly created teaching area it calls its UK Faculty. Independents never cease to be impressed by the high tech nature of lens manufacturing.
The latest changes to the plant have provided Hoya with the flexibility to manufacture any lens it wants there, within reason. This offers the dual benefits of short lead times and flexibility.
‘We are now here in Wrexham 100% independent manufacturing, everything we do here is focused on the independent from everything we manufacture to the sales team to the customer services to the Faculty that we are sitting in now,’ says Martin Batho, managing director of
Hoya UK.
One stop shop
That is not to say everything for the UK is manufactured in Wrexham – the company also has plants in Hungary and Thailand. ‘Our approach is slightly different to others because we produce everything from a base product right through to a premium product. Our view is to be a one stop shop, particularly if you want an urgent order it doesn’t have to be specific to one lens type. If, in the future, costs become prohibitive then we might need to review that model but at the moment our intention is to be able to provide a full range of products. Our investment in the past year has been angled very much towards bringing our flagship MyStyle product to Wrexham. Whatever product it is that you want you can get it in a short lead time.’
He says major manufacturers, like Hoya, can choose to produce product in Hungary, Thailand or elsewhere in the world. Sometimes that makes sense as large plants offer clear advantages in terms of quality, price and volume but there was also room for local capability. Many manufacturers have moved production overseas. ‘Having the UK facility allows us to do something that they can’t, which is to take time out. If in all of the products that we produce here we can improve the service then that naturally gives us an advantage both for having the Wrexham facility and against some of our competitors who may not have local manufacturing.’
Hoya recognised its exposure to having too much manufacturing concentrated in one area and its massive plant in Hungary replicates the Thai plant that was devastated by flooding a few years ago. ‘There has been huge investment in Hungary and there are a significant number of people working there.’ That creates security for Europe while having the full range of products out of Wrexham provides security of supply locally.
Wrexham’s production facility has changed a lot. The most obvious difference is the quieter atmosphere and light, lab-feel to the production area. There’s a lot of new equipment in terms of automation, Batho says, pointing to equipment from leading manufacturers. It favours Optotech and Schneider in the plant and Batho suggests production technology, once a major topic of discussion, has reached a level where it can almost be considered a commodity. All of the main manufacturers produce technology that is ‘robust,’ he says.
Blocking, taping, generating and smoothing and polishing are all housed close together in compact, yet speedy, machines. Batho talks in hushed tones as he denotes an imaginary dividing line with his arms. ‘Everything this side is MyStyle V+ product. We are working on a hockey puck, surfacing both front and back,’ he adds. A single machine takes the puck and surfaces front and back, cuts and auto polishes. Tool selection is automatic, with an additional machine that also laser engraves before the lens is finally checked. For this line blocking, alloy for the back, wax for the front, is manual: ‘because it’s more individualised.’
High tech inspection
While a manual checking culture is still in evidence some inspection has also gone high tech, explains Batho. ‘We have to check power maps of the lens against the design plots taken from the parameters laid down in design software for that lens design. In the last year £500,000 has been invested in that manufacturing element alone, he says.
With the opening up of the UK Hoya Faculty, Batho now sees the power of the plant as a practical embodiment of how Hoya can support independents.
Championing that is Hoya’s head of business development/national business development manager, John Heritage, who leads a team of 18 business development managers. He says Hoya has always favoured a consultative sell and that approach has been intensified through the training of his field team and the newly-created facilities for the UK Faculty within the Hoya site.
The Faculty sits at the front of Hoya’s Wrexham plant and is laid out as a deconstructed practice mixed with a teaching facility. Futuristic frame displays sit alongside a modern refraction suite and high tech instrumentation. ‘It’s to show Faculty delegates the innovative ways there are of displaying frames,’ says Batho. By working with non-competitive suppliers, in the case of displays with Mewscraft, it can show, and help to finance, development among the independent community.
On the equipment side, Hoya has linked up with Birmingham Optical and the suite boasts £120,000 worth of the latest kit. Batho says: ‘The technology is awesome and it is interesting for our independent customers to see what is possible.’ Hoya wants to help with finance where possible through its VSE Webshop, other business relationships or through another collaborator, Performance Finance. Elsewhere, frame companies have got involved with brands such as Stepper and William Morris adorning the racks.
Welcome visitors
Practitioners have always been keen to visit the lens facility and now there is even more reason to come to Wrexham, says Batho. ‘The Faculty is proof of that. Wrexham isn’t in the centre of the world but we are not finding it difficult to get our customers to visit us here.’
He points to the example of the quarterly factory tour which is now over-subscribed. ‘The biggest group we had was 50 and perhaps that was too many so we are having to turn away those who want to come and put them into the next phase.’