Optical lab turnaround: how many days by job type

A patient asks when the glasses will be ready, and the front desk says a week. The lab said two days. The glasses arrive in nine, counting the weekend and the trip.

Most of that gap comes from mixing up three numbers: days in the lab, business days against calendar days, and days in transit. Here is optical lab turnaround by job type, and how to turn it into a date the patient can hold you to.

How long does optical lab turnaround take for each job type?

Single vision leaves our lab in 1-2 business days, and free-form progressives in 2-3. Rush jobs go out in 1-2 days, which matters most on a progressive. Those are days in the lab, from the order coming in to the job going out, and shipping comes after.

A progressive takes longer because there’s more to make and more to check. Its surface is calculated from the prescription, the monocular PDs and the fitting heights, then generated and polished. What a free-form order needs covers those measurements.

The finished progressive is checked at the distance circle, the prism reference point and the near circle. A single vision lens has one power, checked at one point.

At ITFIT: surfacing, coating, edging and the final check all happen in our building. We make about 1,000 jobs a day there, and more when we need to. For a tint, a mirror or a job you haven’t sent us before, ask for the date when you order.

What is the difference between business days and calendar days?

Business days run Monday to Friday; calendar days count all seven. Our turnaround is counted in business days, because nothing gets surfaced while the lab is closed.

The patient counts calendar days. A progressive ordered on a Thursday has 2-3 business days ahead of it: Friday, Monday, Tuesday. That’s up to five calendar days, with a weekend in the middle that the patient counts and the lab doesn’t.

A Friday order is the one to watch, because its first business day in the lab is Monday. If the lab closes for a holiday, count it like a weekend day, and move the promise out by a day for each one.

At ITFIT: we’re open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and closed Saturday and Sunday. Ask us for our holiday dates before a long weekend.

How much time does shipping add to a lab’s turnaround?

Shipping adds from one day to about four, depending on the method, and the clock starts the day the job leaves the lab. You pick the method per order.

Method	Time once shipped	Cost
OTD Florida (South and Central Florida only)	Next business day	$9.99 a shipment
UPS 2 Day	2 business days	$11.99
USPS Priority	2-3 days	$7.49
UPS Ground	3 business days	$7.99
USPS First Class, tracked	Usually about 4 days	Free at 3 pairs of lenses a week, otherwise $5

Watch the units. The UPS and OTD times are in business days, and the USPS times are in days. The full list is on our shipping page.

A slow method on a fast job can take longer in transit than the job took in the lab. A single vision job out in 1-2 business days and sent USPS First Class spends about 4 more days on the road.

What adds days to an optical lab’s turnaround?

Missing measurements, a frame to follow, a second lab and a remake all add days, and the first two are in your hands.

• Missing measurements. A progressive can’t be laid out without monocular PDs and fitting heights. A job that arrives without them waits until someone calls for them.
• Frame to follow. A lab can make the lenses, but it can’t mount them in a frame it hasn’t got. The frame’s trip to the lab is added to the job.
• A second lab. A lens sent out for its coating makes an extra trip each way.
• A remake. It starts the clock again, from the day the lab has the new order.

The first two you fix at your end, by sending the measurements and the frame with the order. The third is a question to ask any lab. The fourth you cut by getting the measurements right the first time.

At ITFIT: we do everything in-house, so nothing leaves the building. Surfacing, coating, edging and drilling are all done here, and no job waits on a second lab.

What date should the front desk promise a patient?

Promise the date you get from the top of each range: days in the lab, plus days in transit, plus one day to check the job on your own bench before you call. Count from the first business day after the order.

Say a progressive goes in on a Monday and you ship it UPS Ground. Counting from Tuesday, the top of the range has it leaving on Thursday, and three business days of Ground bring it in on Tuesday. You check it that afternoon, so the date you give the patient on Monday is Wednesday of the next week.

The same count on a single vision job ordered Monday and sent OTD Florida gives Wednesday out, Thursday in and a Friday promise. If the job comes in early, the patient gets an early call.

At ITFIT: a rush goes out in 1-2 days for a patient who can’t wait. Pair it with OTD in South and Central Florida, or UPS 2 Day elsewhere. The lensometer guide covers the check on arrival, so a rush doesn’t skip it.

How do you check an optical lab’s turnaround on your own jobs?

Log three dates for each job: the day you ordered it, the day it shipped and the day it arrived. The tracking number gives you the ship date.

Count business days from order to ship, and you have the lab’s time. Count from ship to arrival, and you have the carrier’s. Keep the two apart.

A job that took a week might have spent two days in the lab and the rest on a slow method over a weekend. The fix for that one is a faster shipping choice. Log the dates for a month of jobs, single vision and progressives separately, and compare each against the numbers the lab gives.

Days in the lab, days in transit and a day on your own bench add up to the date you give the patient. Count all three from the top of the range, and the promise holds.

To put ours on your own jobs, open an account through VisionWeb. We add your practice to our VisionWeb account, usually the same business day.