EYE ON EQUIPMENT

Saving money and boosting profits are topics on every lab manager's mind. Even practices that do not do their own lab work in-house wrestle with the question of whether to make an investment in the present in order to reap the payoff benefits in the future. And how do you calculate the potential value of buying new equipment now anyway? Does the tight labor market make it more attractive for labs to sink money into equipment? What about future lab upgrades?

Our panel of experts tackles these and other tough questions about the value of spending for equipment now in order to save money later.

Return On Investment

We look at the purchase of new equipment as an investment, so the return on investment (ROI) must be considered. To evaluate the potential savings, compare the monthly lab fees by lens type with the cost of stock lenses. The cost difference can be significant, especially with premium lenses. If you have an all-in-one edger, you can do all your edging jobs in-house, including glass, AR-coated, and high-index.

If a practice is edging in-house, a critical question to ask is whether the current equipment is as cost-efficient as it could be to realize maximum profits. Pattern edgers can drag productivity by taking 15 minutes or more per lens, versus less than five minutes for patternless edging. Faster equipment frees up more time each day for staff to spend with customers, selling profitable premium frames and lenses.

To maximize production and profits, a practice needs finishing equipment that is fast, easy to use, and consistently accurate with all types of materials.

-Leo Tonkin, Briot

Slower Is Faster

There are many ways to save money over time by spending money today. One is to purchase the latest equipment so that less-skilled labor can be hired to produce high quality jobs. An edger that can provide automatic decentration, polish, multiple groove options, safety bevel, multiple bevel options, and more lends itself to easy hands-off operation. The operator can then leave the job while it's processing to perform other tasks in the lab or the dispensary. Operators become more productive, and you can save more than $2,000 per year for every $1 per hour of salary you don't have to pay for less experienced labor.

Automatic edgers also will help you save money by contributing to less breakage. Not only are they more accurate, they reduce the number of times a lens needs to be handled in the lab because the machines perform more operations on the lens than just edging.

The faster speed of the equipment saves money, not because patternless edgers are faster than their patterned predecessors but because of the accuracy of one-cut first-time fit rate. Pattern edgers generally take up to three cuts to be deadly accurate on sizing.

-Stuart Watson, National Optronics, Inc.

A Question of Volume

Normally, we recommend the purchase of a finishing lab if the practice is averaging five jobs a day. However, many times we have been overruled by customers who were averaging two to three jobs per day. Their reasoning is that they can compete with faster service and generate a better quality end-product, which in turn creates an increase in sales and a faster return on the investment.

The profit factor depends on variables such as how much you invest, whether you have a full- or part-time operator, and how much you pay the lab person.

Operators of patternless edgers, for example, don't need to be as skilled as those who use pattern edgers, so your hourly labor costs would be lower with the former. However, patternless edgers also cost more. Nowadays, however, there is more of a choice of features as well as pricing levels for patternless systems.

-Bill Galindo, ODI/Topcon

Spending money now could save you money later in three ways: 

1.) Add a process you don't do now. If, for example you have a finishing lab now with ample space to add surfacing capabilities, you may generate considerable savings by putting in surfacing. If you currently surface and finish, adding a backside coating unit would allow you to provide poly and hi-index lenses, saving you time and outside lab costs, and boosting profits.

2.) You can replace existing pieces of equipment with more automated equipment. The new equipment generally demands operators who are less skilled, yet are more efficient and produce more accurate work.

3) Spend money on training your people. Your largest expense (personnel) can become your largest profit center when staffers are properly trained and motivated.

-Jim Coburn, OWC

The PC Correlation

With the caliber of today's computerized lens processing systems, investing in new technology can reduce the cost of producing lenses. With a computer-controlled lens finishing system, for example, the operator simply loads the frame into the tracing unit, enters the prescription data into the computer, and blocks the pre-selected lens. Then the edger cuts the lens automatically.

Generally, if offices add a system like this, the impact is a lower cost per lens, greater turnaround, and improved quality. In addition, extra personnel or finishing experience is not needed. Depending on the system, you could train existing employees in a matter of a couple of hours.

Modern technology is faster and user-friendly. A comparison can be made to today's personal computers, which are dramatically faster and easier to use than they were five or 10 years ago, so workers can do more work in the same time frame.

-Clement Patry, Gerber Coburn

You Can Do It All

Investments in the technology that is available today for tracing, blocking, and edging are low-risk and result in long-term cost savings and profit improvements. The cost savings come into play because equipment technology has advanced to the point that edgers offer multiple options and features such as edge polishing, pin beveling, grooving, and drilling all on one machine, reducing the need to have additional, one-function equipment and skilled operators to run them.

With the multitude of lens designs and frame shapes, coating options, and lens materials, it is necessary to have the technology to process these shapes and lenses. Utilizing technology that is more than 12 to 18 months old will not yield the performance available from the current offerings. Tracers have improved their ability to maintain accuracy, consistency in measurements and the amount of data that can be transmitted to the edger. Edgers are better equipped to use this data to offer very high first-time fit rates, beautiful edge polishes and accurate Rx placement that allows the patient to take advantage of today's stylish frames and latest lens materials and designs.

-Linda Little, WECO

Walk-outs

In an office that is already edging, adding a new state-of-the-art edger will reduce labor time spent on edging by approximately 40 percent. Also, with the new edger you need not send out the difficult jobs that are costly to replace if they break during finishing.

In an office that is not already edging, you can go through your invoices and calculate how much per job you would save by putting in a lab in order to determine potential profitability and savings.

Another way to estimate profitability is to keep track of the number of patients who left your dispensary to have their Rx's filled elsewhere. If you lose two patients per week because your service isn't fast enough or because patients can't leave their frames, you stand to lose approximately $1,200 per month (based on an average price of $150 per pair). Being able to service these patients would result in more than enough profit to not only pay for your lab, but to have substantial profit as well.

-Chris Martin, Santinelli International

What's Your Problem?

When buying new finishing equipment, particularly a new automatic edger, there are several issues to consider. Ultimately, if you are upgrading, you will want to address the problems you currently are facing in your lab, such as a need for a system that less-skilled staff members can operate; an existing machine that is unable to cut popular lens materials or sizes; high breakage rates; unsatisfactory service on the existing machine; or a desire to bring 100 percent of the lab work in-house.

Additionally, you want to consider future needs, such as remote tracing or perhaps integration with surfacing equipment, should you add a surfacing lab down the road.

Upgrading to a 3-D patternless edger can create objective financial benefits to your practice that outweigh the up-front costs. A good edger allows for ease of use, gives you the ability to do 100 percent of your jobs in-house, and produces a consistently high-quality product. It also can give you the opportunity to work more efficiently by utilizing less-skilled labor or existing staff, and helps you reduce costly re-dos. Lab technicians can be freed up to spend more time selling more frames. You will be able to provide quicker turnaround and improve overall quality with your own in-office lab.

Purchasing a capital piece of equipment such as an automatic edger always should be based on a long-term benefit and not on the initial up-front cost. With leasing programs and financing options, in-office finishing can be profitable for practices edging as few as four jobs a day.

-Matt Vulich, AIT

Investment First

In the past, the thinking on the lab side was often "investment first, results later." The current successful laboratory looks at all investments in equipment from a payback standpoint and for the potential to reduce cost per lens.

This new attitude has spurred reinvestment in advanced technology that previously might have been considered too costly in order to bring a greater value to the customer. It has been necessary to update and utilize state-of-the-art lens processing equipment to meet increased requirements such as production of more complex lens types and materials, shorter turnaround times, and premium quality demands of the patient.

In addition, there is almost no lab that does not express concern over hiring for both skilled and unskilled needs. Any piece of equipment or process that can reduce this need is helpful. In a case such as this, making the investment in new, automated equipment is almost always worth it.

-Kurt Atchison, LOH Optical Machinery  EB

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