The gefma Lounge Bavaria Nuremberg invited guests to Bamberg on 19 September 2024 for its third event in 2024. The aim of this year's ‘Site Inspection’, during which the Lounge visits companies from the northern Bavaria region to familiarise itself with their operating processes and their fields of activity in facility management, was the lens manufacturer Rupp + Hubrach Optik GmbH (R+H).
20 participants were first given an insight into the history, processes and products of the lens manufacturer, which is currently one of the five largest manufacturers in Germany with a production volume of around 10,000 lenses per day or 2.5 million units per year. Stefanie Schuldt from Product Management gave a keynote speech on R+H's corporate philosophy and processes. While the company's beginnings were in the former ‘Zwinger’ in Bamberg city centre, R+H has long since outgrown this location and moved to its current headquarters in Von-Ketteler-Straße in the 1960s. It is worth noting that even back then, the topic of ‘energy’ was given an important role and the hydroelectric power of the Regnitz was utilised for the production processes. This sustainable approach still characterises the company today, as it is constantly striving to optimise its operating processes and the associated plant technology. Today, the focus is more on I&C technology, for which R+H relies on automation systems from Siemens. Since the 1960s, the requirements and production processes have logically changed, so that R+H's production facilities have also been successively expanded and remodelled to meet the increasing production requirements. It is no coincidence that the company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2022.
After this introduction, the participants - under the direction of Stefanie Schuldt, Jürgen Fösel, Head of Operations Service, and Dr Conrad Höfener, Head of Production - were given an exclusive insight into the production facility.
The production of lenses begins with so-called ‘blanks’, which are purchased externally and then customised and finished in the production processes. Like building technology, production technology has also evolved over time, with the result that a large part of the production process is now mechanised and automated. In addition, plastic glasses are almost exclusively produced instead of mineral glasses. Nevertheless, there are still manual activities, such as colouring the lenses.
The manufacturing processes are highly complex because the lenses are individually produced in surface production based on the opticians' orders and each lens is unique due to its individual shape. The finishing of the lenses is no less demanding, with the application of extremely thin hard coatings of just a few nanometres increasing the service life of the lenses and also making them anti-reflective. It is worth noting that these production processes have been developed over decades based on the innovative strength of the company's own technicians and are being further optimised in line with the motto ‘keeping an eye on the future’.
At the concluding discussion, there were plenty of topics for discussion among the participants - from staff shortages and staff development to the ban on climate-damaging refrigerants and the changing demands on properties as a result of climate change - including with regard to heavy rainfall events. Jürgen Fösel was also able to provide many insights and experiences from his more than 30 years of involvement and as Head of Operational Services and Facility Management at R+H.
