Ross Optical Blog: The Latest News & Research

Do offshore vendors scare you? Time zones and languages! Shipping schedules and quality control! International Customs and ITAR regulations! Worrying about all of those factors can make you want to avoid offshore suppliers completely, regardless of cost benefits. Rather than hiding under a blanket and hoping these fears go away, maybe you just need someone to turn on a light. Offshore vendor management is one of Ross’s key services. Here’s how we make it work.

The annual SPIE Photonics West conference in San Francisco set new attendance records. More than 22,000 people met to discuss the latest in light-based science and engineering, and the exhibition hall, featuring 1,345 companies, sold out months in advance. The BiOS, LASE, and OPTO conferences were the place to learn about the latest photonics R&D.

It’s winning the game that matters, not the individual players. A manager can spend a fortune to get all the very best players, but if they don’t work well together, the team won’t consistently win. Similarly, in optics, it is the system performance that matters, not every single component. Here are two instances when choosing the right kind of “imperfect” optics provides winning performance and a safer supply chain.

Thanks to you, 2016 was a year of steady growth, and we are excited for what’s to come in 2017. Our new customers last year shared similar challenges before coming to Ross, and it was our ability to work with them that made the difference. These common optics supply chain challenges included:

Minimizing supply chain risk is an important priority for companies that source optical components. Tight timelines and cost pressures mean that businesses can’t afford mistakes or missing parts. There are several ways to reduce your optical supply chain risk and ensure continued availability of optical components.

Thanks to our network of 21 optical manufacturing partners around the world, Ross Optical stocks a wide variety of standard and hard-to-find optics, including aspheres and micro lenses. What’s more, especially on multiples, we offer these components for 20-40% less than leading catalog prices.

As a registered ITAR supplier, Ross Optical and is carefully tracking ITAR changes and what they could mean to you and your optics supply chain.*

We recently conducted a survey to learn more about how professionals in the optics industry are managing their supply chains. Respondents spanned a range of industries and roles, but a few similarities emerged.

As you may know, Ross Optical recently added a new inventory solution. Called vendor-managed or consignment inventory, this program gives customers on-demand access to our more than 1000 catalog optical components, as well as custom optics and assemblies.