Globalization and new manufacturing technologies have transformed the optics industry allowing customers more choices, higher precision, better quality, and lower prices for the products they buy. However, lead time improvements for custom optical components have been slow to develop. Optics suppliers usually rationalize their long lead times by pointing to their limited glass availability, long manufacturing cycles, and queue times at different stages of the manufacturing process. In the meantime, time to market is increasingly becoming one of the most important metrics for a competitive manufacturing company’s product development process. Often it means the difference between success and failure of the new product launch.
