G&H | ITL Case Study: Optos

Overview

Optos is a market-leading retinal imaging firm that provides medical diagnostic devices to eyecare professionals.

The Optos range of ophthalmic devices enables healthcare workers to diagnose, analyze and monitor ocular diseases with an ultra-widefield (UWF™) view in high resolution. As well as ocular diseases, Optos imaging devices are also used in the detection of high blood pressure and some cancer.

Requirements

As part of our commitment to manufacturing, we invested in building ten safety interlocked laser rooms in our UK facility. All of our staff underwent specialist laser training for the facility, which had to meet FDA standards as a large proportion of the P200’s manufactured were shipped to the US. Due to the size and criticality of the Optos project, it was assigned a dedicated team including a QA engineer, buyer, project manager, and supervisor.

As well as manufacturing, we supported Optos through numerous R&D projects, including optimizing the optical laser alignment to provide higher quality images, developing laser power monitors, and implementing a safety check PCB. We also manufactured alignment toolkits that were provided with each unit sold and used in the field to facilitate the installation process. Optos took full advantage of our ancillary aftersales service offering. We helped manage their whole supply chain, often traveling overseas for suppler audits and solving issues with difficult-to-source components.

Results

Optos used a dual sourcing strategy, and despite regularly changing their second source suppliers, we remained the contract manufacturer of the P200. G&H | ITL has worked with Optos for over 16 years and successfully delivered over 3,500 units- no mean feat for such a complex device. We now offer continued support for spare parts and toolkits.

The success of the relationship was aided by the support we had from Optos. They invested significantly in employee training for FDA compliance and maintained an excellent level of documentation control.

The company was recently acquired by Nikon, a Japanese multinational specializing in optics and imaging products for £259m.