EYE ON EQUIPMENT
Tech Training: It�s Not What It Used To Be
By Susan P. Tarrant

Time was when you had a lab tech in your practice who was skilled at the edger, beveler, and polisher, you had a gem and you did whatever it took to keep him or her on staff. Training someone in the skilled art of working those machines was time consuming, and finding someone with technical acumen and the necessary optical understanding was sometimes difficult.

But a new day has dawned. Actually, it dawned several years ago, as equipment manufacturers began implementing software into their machines. The result is lab equipment that is more user-friendly than ever�equipment that is capable of handling many of the finer points of processing lenses itself, without operator involvement. Automatic tracing, remote tracing, auto grooving, auto beveling, automatic fining and polishing, and equipment that can handle any lens materials with ease�it all translates into an in-house lab that is much easier to staff, as the necessary training and skill level of techs is reduced.

Matthew Mc Kenna, field service manager for Santinelli International, says he is sometimes met with skepticism from a practitioner installing an all-in-one edging system for the first time. �They don�t believe the machine can be that precise all the time,� he says. �And it�s so easy. All they have to do is input the information from the prescription.�

So does that mean your in-house edging lab can be run by monkeys? Well, not exactly.

And although it is much easier to operate lab equipment now than it ever was, Polson believes that optical practitioners are best served by a tech who also understands optics. And, she says, it may fall on the doctor or dispenser to educate that technician.

That does not mean, however, that training on the equipment should be an issue for the practitioner, Polson emphasizes. It is something that one should expect from the equipment vendor.

�If you are already trained on the equipment, and you hire new employees, then absolutely you should have no trouble bringing them up to speed,� she says. �If you�re not trained, or are a little rusty, or you have just purchased the equipment, then you should be able to look to your equipment provider for the training.�

Bret Davis, national sales manager for Briot, agrees. His company, like others, provides on-site training for new accounts when the equipment is installed. He says that even someone with no optical knowledge can operate it.

�I find myself training people without optical experience,� Davis says. It�s possible due to the fully automated, fully robotic nature of most the lab equipment available now.

�Once the operator understands the terms of the industry, there are just buttons to push.� He says he once trained a woman who didn�t speak much English and knew nothing of optical. After three and a half days, she was operational on the equipment. (Davis and other equipment vendors, however, say one or two days of training is much more the norm.)

Rich Schull, an optician at Great Falls Eyecare in Great Falls, Va., knows first-hand how easy it is to train a staff. Although he�d been in the industry for decades, his practice just invested in a newest generation tracer/edger. Within a few hours he was trained, and he was able to train everyone else in the practice�even the doctor and the receptionist!

�Within no time they were making lenses,� he says. �The machine makes it easy.� Schull points out, however, that a skilled eye is still needed for one procedure�using the lensometer and marking the lenses. He, as an optician, usually handles that task, and then hands the job off to the techs. An added perk of the newer machines, he says, is that they can store settings�which allows him to enter the settings for jobs beforehand when he needs to take a day off.

There�s a perception among practitioners in the industry �especially those who have been in business for quite some time and remember the days of pattern edgers�that they need to find skilled lab techs. That is simply not so. And in today�s labor market, that�s good news.

�More and more non-opticians are being hired to do the edging,� Davis says. �A lot of our accounts are hiring kids right out of high school.� That�s partly due to the labor pool in any given market, but an upshot of that is that the pay rate for such workers is much less.

In fact, Polson says that the issue on training should come up with the vendor before the decision to purchase the equipment is made. If you�re creating an in-house lab for the first time, or just updating your existing equipment, ask these questions (and ask them of the company�s references as well):

• How long will the trainer be on-site?

• What level training is provided?

• Will the trainer stay on-site to observe after the training is completed?

• Will there be follow-up visits?

Davis stresses that accounts should take advantage of the equipment vendor�s expertise with the equipment to get as much training for their techs as possible, and to take advantage of follow-up visits by trainers or account reps.

�The better trained they are, the more comfortable they are with the equipment,� Davis says, �and the more likely they are to keep their premium product in-house.� EB