On this Valentine's Day, I'm declaring my love for manufacturing. ?? However, the reality is, that building manufacturing capabilities from the ground up was unbelievably challenging. This challenge is amplified when working with millimeters of tolerance to craft lenses that must fit perfectly into thousands of frames.
REVANT OPTICS has now become the world leader in replacement lens manufacturing, but it wasn't always the case. When we initially set out to manufacture lenses in Portland, we were fueled by almost blind (entrepreneurial) optimism that took us to the brink of shutting down completely.
In the summer of 2017, we decided to start manufacturing lenses domestically to allow us to expand our lens offering without tying up cash in inventory. We subleased manufacturing space from our friends at Shwood Eyewear, purchased a Satisloh lens edger, and hired a manufacturing team. In the summer of 2018, we launched over 5,000 new lenses — all manufactured in Portland, Oregon.
Initial results blew away our expectations; revenue spiked by 40% and customers were thrilled with the new lens offerings made in the USA. Riding high on this wave of success & growth, we soon realized the challenges of scaling manufacturing were way beyond what we could have imagined.
As the initial wave of growth excitement crashed, it became evident that we lacked the knowledge to support such rapid expansion. To live up to our brand promise, & ensure our customers received high-quality lenses, we took drastic action — a four-month manufacturing shutdown.
During the shutdown, the importance of experience & expertise in scaling became glaringly apparent. Collaborating with Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership (OMEP) & other manufacturing experts, we reevaluated our strategy & relaunched it in a much more stable and scalable way.
Fast forward five years, & we now manufacture more than 160,000 pairs of lenses annually in The Pearl District of Portland. We’ve become so efficient that the cost is nearly identical to manufacturing overseas & our quality is better with an MOQ of one pair of lenses.?
As painful as it was to build, manufacturing lenses will always be at the core of Revant. The lessons learned over the last five years — the importance of not chasing growth at the expense of quality,? involving experts early in scaling, & the willingness to take a hit to protect your customers & brand when things don’t go to plan — have become integral to our identity and future growth.
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The 1st image is a picture I took in 2018 at 2 AM as we were shutting down manufacturing to reset. I had been pulling down airlines that had filled with water for over an hour..the frustration on my face says it all.
The 2nd is our lens manufacturing lines five years later. We now make the best lenses in the world, empowering millions of customers to repair the frames they love. ??
#business #manufacturing #portlandoregon
