Manufacturing

Luxottica Group’s manufacturing system has two main platforms: in Italy and China. Alongside these, the Foothill Ranch facility in California manufactures and assembles most of Oakley’s eyewear products, and while Oakley’s second manufacturing center in Dayton, Nevada, produces the frames used in its X Metal® (a proprietary alloy) eyewear products. Lastly, there is a small plant in India, serving the local market.

Luxottica has six manufacturing facilities in Italy: five in north east Italy, the area in which most of the country’s optical industry is based, and one near Turin. All of these facilities are highly automated, which has made it possible to maintain a high level of production without excessive capital outlay. Some of these facilities also make sunglass crystal lenses and polycarbonate lenses.

The Dongguan plants, in China’s Guangdong province, make both plastic and metal frames.

Over the years, the Group has consolidated its manufacturing processes by concentrating a specific production technology in each of the Italian facilities. This consolidation enabled both the productivity and quality of manufacturing operations to be improved.
Plastic frames are made in the Sedico, Pederobba and Lauriano facilities, while metal frames are produced in Agordo and Rovereto. Certain metal frame parts are produced in the Cencenighe plant.

The manufacturing process for both metal and plastic frames begins with the fabrication of precision tooling and molds based on prototypes developed by in-house design and engineering staff. This capacity gives the Group a strong competitive advantage by enabling it to reduce the lead time for product development and thereby adapt quickly to market trends and contain production costs.

The manufacturing process for metal frames has around 70 phases, beginning with the production of basic components such as rims, temples and bridges, which are produced through a molding process. These components are then welded together to form frames in numerous stages of detailed assembly work. Once assembled, the metal frames are treated with various coatings to improve their resistance and finish, and then prepared for lens fitting and packaging.

Plastic frames are manufactured by either a milling process or injection molding. In the milling process, a computer-controlled machine carves frames from colored plastic sheets. This process produces rims, temples and bridges that are then assembled, finished and packaged. In the injection molding process, plastic resins are liquefied and injected into molds. The plastic parts are then assembled, coated, finished and packaged.

The California facility produces high performance sunglasses and prescription frames and lenses. The equipment used is specially designed and adapted for Oakley’s manufacturing processes. This makes it possible to respond quickly to customer demand, offer protection against piracy and adhere to strict quality-control standards. Throughout the development process, Oakley optics products undergo extensive testing against standards established specifically for eyewear by ANSI and ASTM. These standards relate to product safety and performance and provide quantitative measures of optical quality, UV protection, light transmission and impact resistance. Oakley also performs a broad range of durability and mechanical integrity tests on its lens coatings, involving extremes of exposure to UV light, heat, condensation and humidity.

In North America, Luxottica Group has seven central lens finishing labs and around 900 LensCrafters labs. Oakley operates optical lens laboratories in the United States, Ireland and Japan, provide prescription lenses for North and South American, European and Asian markets respectively. In Australia, the Eyebiz laboratory covers most of the Group’s local needs. Combining a broad presence in the market with the capacity for handling lens finishing work provides a strategically important contribution towards reducing the time and cost of finishing work provided by third parties.