Caledonian Optical

“Caledonian looked to find an LMS that could take them into digital freeform surfacing. In 2005, we first had Innovations installed mainly to automate the calculations for production. In addition, we found the feature of online orders and the Lablink system useful. We could give our customers the ability to order online.

They were the two features we originally looked at. As we grew as a company and did more freeform production, we started looking at the other elements of Innovations. We found the Inventory system module was really good.

A key component of the inventory system for us was the Scan & Verify. It meant we could manually pick a lens and it was check it before it went to production. It saved many costs and potential breakages and averted risks - a very, very good feature!

As we’ve became more used to the system, we discovered what it can really do. Now we've really invested fully and integrated the lab with Innovations. Essentially, we can't make anything without Innovations. It's really throughout the entire lab ecosystem. From tracking information to the location of a job anywhere in the lab (which is great from a customer service point of view!), we can tell exactly where anything is. 

All the machines are linked up, so the system automatically updates throughout the process of where a lens is, which is excellent for us. This process is linked to Lablink as well, it gives our customers a live online feed to how their jobs are going.

As we've grown, the most important feature, from my point of view, is reporting. Being able to see how many jobs are coming in and how many jobs are going out. Innovations came with a large number of different reports however it works for us because it can allow you to focus on certain parts of your process. We're linking to external salesmen and we can track progress through Innovations. Workflow Monitor has been an ideal situation for us as well.

Also, our invoicing to customers is fully integrated into our finance system. As we have grown, Innovations has become inherently part of the success of Caledonian Optical and enable us to make the high-quality lenses that we do produce.

Would you recommend Innovations?

Yeah! I like how it keeps evolving as well. It's been a fantastic system, particularly once we started using more and more of the elements. So going back to where we were starting just from calculations to full integration it tells its own story.”