A LENS IS BORN

Step inside. An eye-opening look at how innovative spectacle lens ideas grow from a simple concept into a product that delivers pure vision

BY STEPHANIE K. DE LONG

Image courtesy of Vision Ease

Do you know what’s behind the lenses you sell?

To fill in the blanks, EB checked in with experts from three spectacle lens companies to learn more about just what goes into creating a new product. Here, we pose questions about everything from concept through design to production and launch. Read on for a journey into how a lens is born.

1. HOW DO YOU TEST A CONCEPT?

“The key to improving the likely success of a concept,” says David Hoagland, senior product manager at Vision Ease, “is heavy upfront testing with iterative prototypes to ensure the product will work technically.” At Vision Ease, this is coupled with active market testing to ensure it will find a home with targeted market segments.

“We have extensive testing and analytical equipment for developing products,” explains Essilor of America’s Phil Miller, vice president, North American R&D. “For anti-smudge topcoat performance, for example, we test new and ‘aged’ lenses—that is, lenses we chemically treat to simulate several years of wear.”

2. HOW LONG BETWEEN CONCEPT AND LAUNCH?

“For a major brand,” says Miller, “we typically launch a new product every three years. As soon as the latest version hits, we’re busy in R&D looking at improvements for the next.”

Miller also notes that simpler launches take much less time. For example, adding a color to a family of polarized lenses could be a matter of months.

“Once R&D is done,” he adds, “Global Engineering works to industrialize the solution. Then the rest of the launch work begins: building inventory, creating sales tools and literature, training sales and brand people. This can take up to a year due to the extensive nature of a worldwide, all-substrates launch.”

At Shamir, timing depends on factors such as development of new technologies and overall complexity of the lens itself. “In general, however, initial concept-to-market introduction runs 12 to 18 months,” says Shamir’s director of marketing, Candice Keating.

Image courtesy of Essilor of America

3. DO YOU TEST MORE THAN ONE CONCEPT FOR A PRODUCT?

“We’ll test multiple concepts over the course of a year and come up with an extensive list of options for our brand marketing,” says Essilor’s Miller. “Marketing will identify the best options by conducting focus groups and then settle on a suite of new product performance features.” At that point, he adds, R&D will open a formal program to deliver the selected features—this stage can last another year.

4. WHAT IF INITIAL RESULTS AREN’T AS EXPECTED?

“The many ideas that eventually get set aside—put on hold until technology or markets have changed—are not wasted time,” stresses Vision Ease’s Hoagland. “They serve both as inspiration for new and better ideas, and as confirmation that the company is constantly testing, strengthening, and evolving its strategy.”

Image courtesy of Essilor of America

5. HOW IMPORTANT IS TECHNOLOGY IN DETERMINING A NEW PRODUCT?

“We are constantly trying to advance visual solutions and experiences,” says Shamir’s Keating. “Technology is the driving force behind those advancements.”

Adds Essilor’s Miller: “We know customers and ECPs don’t care that we have a new way of making a lens unless it brings them a direct benefit like added performance or lowers price. Our products must have a good value, which means we can’t add expensive features and upgrades that don’t matter to wearers.” In addition, Essilor also looks for ways to migrate features from top-of-the-range products into the middle tier for cost-conscious consumers.

6. WHAT OTHER FACTORS ARE CONSIDERED IN DECIDING WHAT TO LAUNCH?

“We look at the whole gamut,” says Vision Ease’s Hoagland. “Competitiveness demands pursuing potential improvements in all areas—quality, cost, speed to market, product differentiation, channel expansion, and so forth. Each company will have its core competencies and build its strategy from those. But today, no company can afford to ignore other areas.”

According to Essilor’s Miller, “First and foremost, we try to develop products that meet a market need. That may be a feature or improved performance for wearers (better optical designs, for example) or a benefit for ECPs (easier-to-tint lenses, for example).”

7. WHAT KIND OF TESTING IS CONDUCTED?

“Depending on the product, it can include perception studies and sensory analysis,” explains Essilor’s Miller. “For optical designs like the next generation of Varilux, we do extensive perception studies. We’ll have people wear one design for several weeks and evaluate it. Next, we’ll put them back into their previous glasses to ‘erase’ any halo effects. Then we’ll have them wear the second design and evaluate that.”

In addition, for products like PhysioTints—color perception neutral tints—Essilor will do what it calls “sensory analysis.” Adds Miller: “We’ll invite people in to wear glasses with a new property we’re testing. We’ll have the testers view specific images in the glasses and ask their impressions.”

Image courtesy of Essilor of America

8. WHAT ARE THE STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT?

“A typical process will include these stages: business case, prototype development, development, manufacturing, and launch,” says Miller. “We have a new process with six stages. There’s a go/no-go decision made between each one where we review basic assumptions and reassess whether the new product will achieve the targeted performances, the market need is still present, and the financials still make sense.”

At Shamir, the steps are divided between the headquarters in Israel and the U.S. office, explains Keating. “The first six to eight months are handled by headquarters in Israel and entail initial conceptualization, development of new technologies, as well as the design itself, internal testing, and clinical trials. This all occurs prior to the design being introduced to our offices here, where we start internal launch procedures.”

An R&D lab at work
Image courtesy of Essilor of America

9. ARE THERE DIFFERENT KINDS OF R&D PROGRAMS?

“Yes,” says Essilor’s Miller. “An ‘applicative’ program means data shows there is a market need for the product. ‘Exploratory’ programs may be developing a new technology or gaining fundamental understanding that we’ll use to generate new innovations.”

Finally, Essilor allocates 15% of R&D time on ‘prospective’ research—topics not officially assigned to any particular program.

10. HOW DO YOU WORK WITH LABS PRIOR TO LAUNCH?

“We work through an extensive group of partner labs throughout the country to handle distribution,” says Keating. “This not only requires bringing our own internal teams up to speed on the design, technologies, and back-end operations, but working closely with our 150-plus Freeform partner labs to get them educated on the new design, validated for production, and provided with sales aids needed to prepare their own sales teams for promotion.” At Shamir, this is a minute portion of what is involved and takes place in the last six to eight months of the launch process.

11. WHAT ABOUT LAB PRODUCTION FACILITIES?

“We spend a lot of effort making sure the performance is nearly identical despite the location and type of equipment used to create the Crizal coating, for example,” says Miller. “That’s important because, depending on your prescription, Crizal may be applied to the lens in one of two settings—even perhaps in mass production for your left eye and an Rx lab for your right eye.”