From CD to solar and lenses

With SCHNEIDER's enabling Modulo technology

The BOD GROUP, an established corporation in the CD/DVD replication and solar sector, took the plunge into a new business market: Ophthalmics. Trusting in SCHNEIDER’s expertise, the group invested in Modulo technology.

 

BOD GROUP // Vilnius, Lithuania

01 Bringing lens production home.
BOD Group invests in a promising
new industry.

The fully integrated Modulo Line demonstrates the reintegration of production sites in Europe while dissolving the need to relocate production plants.

Besides reducing the delivery time, BOD Lenses is able to offer competitive prices and full service in shortest period.

The opening of the new lens production lab significantly boosted Lithuania’s economy and labour market. BOD Lenses hired a total of 56 people.

At the beginning, the company planned to supply 15 percent of the customized lenses market in Lithuania, and up to 10 percent in the Baltic States. Operating successfully, BOD Lenses exports its high-quality lenses to 20 European countries today.

“[…] Timely investment in digitization and innovation will enable European manufacturing industry to take over Asian contracts. And we have something more to offer for local customers: faster delivery times, flexibility and native communication, which is alien for Asian manufacturers.”

Vytautas Tuminas
CEO of BOD lenses

02 How to enter an entirely new
business field?
With a trusted partner!

Already a successful player in CD/DVD replication and solar technology, BOD Group recognized new potential in a new market. Although they had no experience in this business field yet, they had big ambitions: Becoming the first most automated European lens lab.

For this bold move to be successful, the company relied on an expert with the right equipment and excellent know-how.

They found it in SCHNEIDER. “During our years of operation, we have worked with these leaders to expand our technical base”, says Vytautas Tuminas, CEO of BOD Lenses.

The full adaption of SCHNEIDER’s Modulo Line allows BOD Lenses to depict all elements of a process chain containing blocking, generating, polishing, laser marking, cleaning, hard-coating, AR-coating and edging.

“We have chosen the German company SCHNEIDER as the installer of the production equipment, which is considered to be the number one technology in the world with its developed technologies.”

Vidmantas Janulevičius,
Chairman of Global BOD Group

03 First European Modulo
production lab

After signing the contract in May 2014, in a mere nine months the SCHNEIDER project team installed the BOD Modulo Line near Vilnius, in Trakai district, Lithuania. 12 new Modulo machines as well as 2 new Sprint Line machines covered BOD’s daily production needs.

In the following years, BOD Lenses expanded its lab by an LCU 300 cleaning system, a CCL Modulo X excimer laser and other machines. Due to its successful growth, the company moved to the new BOD Group center, aiming

to be the most environmentally friendly technology center in Europe. The entire production is fully automated and digitized which is ensured by automation solutions and a fully conveyed production line from the beginning to the production of the final product.

Serving as an intelligently designed management cockpit, the Modulo Control Center supports BOD Lenses with a virtual lab overview and valuable information about the production running.

“The full integration of the Modulo Line enables the most modern production for high quality lenses which will help BOD Lenses to find a leading position in the market and become an important market player also beyond Europe’s borders.”

Gunter Schneider,
Founder and President of the SCHNEIDER group

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Visit the Lab

“Production processes are fully optimized, and all equipment is controlled by computers. The system uses artificial intelligence components, controls the whole process and informs the operator in time about the operation of each machine, the amount of raw materials required, etc.”

Vytautas Tuminas,
CEO of BOD Lenses

04 Confronting the crisis –
BOD Lenses flourishes in 2021

In fact, even the greatest pandemic crisis shows: Reintegrating their lens production to the home country has been worthwhile for BOD Lenses. After a difficult Q2 in 2020, the company recovered faster than expected. Reaching record numbers in July 2020, the company’s turnover in Q1/2021 even grew by 53,71 % compared to Q1/2020.

“Every crisis is the beginning of new opportunities. Thus, when production stopped, we actively engaged in preparing for recovery period.

Active new customer acquisitions, line upgrade, team restructuring – we did all to make the recovery as efficient as possible”, states Vytautas Tuminas, CEO of BOD Lenses.

The pandemic opened up some new opportunities for European lens manufacturers. Instead of solely relying on Asian manufacturers, a large number of European customers shifted their attention to local EU manufacturers, such as BOD Lenses in Vilnius.

About BOD Group

BOD GROUP engineering expertise dates back to 1998, when the first industrial CD manufacturing plant was established in Vilnius. Since then, constant innovation and engineering R&D enabled the diversification of the business and expansion into totally new territories. Today the high technology and engineering company BOD GROUP covers 2 major areas: solar technology (SoliTek) and ophthalmic lenses (BOD Lenses).
The company plans to start producing lithium-ion and lithium-titanoxide batteries and large balancing systems. All 3 businesses have one major technology in common – thin layer coatings. BOD GROUP exports account for 80% of total sales, major markets being Scandinavia, Benelux, France, Spain.

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