Products & ideas for the laboratory professional.
Issue link: https://opticallabproducts.epubxp.com/i/92532
LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012 Q&As; WITH THE COTRANS RON Even if we have to run it three times, it's going to make it. SEIKO Optical Congratulates US Optical on winning Lab Innovator 2012 JG Well, it's probably more of an inventory issue than any- thing else. RON But if it's free-form, it's less of an inventory problem as we just stock the semi-finished single vision lens blanks. RALPH That's another thing about our inventory. We try to stay very, very deep in inventory because of the business model. CREATING THE BEST VISION SEIKO Optical Products of America, Inc. JG Is there anything else about your business model that you'd like to mention? ROBERT The most important thing about our business model is that we are here for our customers. We exist for them. CONGRATULATIONS TO US OPTICAL ON BEING NAMED LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012 JG Tell me about your employees. RON Well, we've only been in business for four years, but the majority of our employees have worked for us for at least 15 years, some since 1986. We currently have 86 staff in total. JG Former employees heard about you and applied? RON Yes. They came to us over the years. And, they're all extremely experienced and knowledgeable. Our customer service people are absolutely the best—conscientious and experienced. CONTINUED SUCCESS FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT ULTRA OPTICS JG Are there any marketing materials you use, like direct mail? RON We do a bunch of direct mail. Also, our Web site is usoptical.com. Simply click on "Lab Tour" to learn about us. Your readers have probably seen all this before but they might be interested in seeing our lab. A12 november 2012 JG For AR, do you have anything other than Zeiss? RON We will have a new Crizal Center in operation by March 2013. And, we're adding 7,500 sq. ft. to the back of our building. JG And that would be primarily for the Crizal coating? RON It's not only coating because we also ordered another free-form line. JG So you have three free-form lines now? RON And we'll soon have four. We're trying to not run any jobs on the conventional line because of the superior quality from the free-form lines. Unfortunately, because of volume variations you can't always do that. So we'll run some single vision on the regular line. We do have an advantage in that all our equipment is relatively new; we don't have older technology that we have to use. JG Who are you going with for your new free-form line? RON Satisloh. JG I would think from a mainte- nance standpoint that you would tend to go with one supplier. RON That certainly makes sense but I think there's going to be a second generation of free-form products coming out that's going to be even better. JG How can it get any better? RON It'll be easier to make and more accurate. You'll have better materials. We're at 1.74 now, right? You know, there may be a 2.0 index on the way. JG Anything else you guys want totallyoptical.com