FEA Industries, Inc. | Focused on Technology

Company History

FEA, as a company, has a 30 year history of providing excellence and innovation in the optical industry. During that time we have reached many milestones that we are proud to celebrate and remember. While a full history of our accomplishments, expansions, and innovations would be a bit too long to post, we have, however, compiled this shorter list of the events we are most proud of to share with you, our users.

Accomplishments

Over the years we, here at FEA, have achieved some truly remarkable things. This page is to list just a few of our many pride-inspiring accomplishments and will be updated regularly as we make additional strides toward being the best company we can be.

Notable Accomplishments

We are a fourth generation, family owned. optical lab.
Recognized as a Top Lab by Vision Monday every year since 2008.
Recognized as the third largest independent lab by volume in the United States.
Created personalized progressives, a combination of free-form and conventional progressive designs to maximize lens performance.
Created high definition multifocals, improving the optics of conventional bifocals and trifocals with free-form enhancement.
Developed and integrated a vast array of proprietary software and software extensions for use in our daily laboratory operations, giving us an edge over other labs in the process.
Pioneered the online presence of optical laboratories and have continued to reinvent and modernize our web presence over the years. We now have a state of the art website that we are proud to present to the public.

FEA in the Press

FEA's Founder, Bill Heffner, was inducted into the Optical Lab Hall of Fame at Vision Expo West.

Who's who at FEA

Ever wanted to know a bit more about the people you either talk to on the phone or see walking around at the trade shows? Well this is the spot where you'll find that information. The below individuals represent a selection of the most visible members of FEA's staff as well as those you are most likely to have interacted with at some point in some capacity.

William "Bill" Heffner, III
President, CEO, Founder
Bill has been involved in the optical industry for 48 years. In 1984 he founded FEA industries in the basement of his family home. Under his guidance and direction the company has flourished over the years from a one person, basement based operation, to a multi-person, multi-facility optical laboratory with clients across the US. In addition to his optical expertise Bill is also an accomplished programmer and has written much of the software we rely on in the day to day operations of our laboratory.

William "Other Bill" Heffner, IV
Director of IT, Marketing, and Sales
Other Bill is a fourth-generation lab executive following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Other Bill has worked at FEA in an on and off capacity for most of his life coming aboard full time in September 2009. He is an accomplished programmer, having received his Master in Software Engineering at the University of the West of England. He is presently in charge of the IT, Marketing, and Sales divisions of the company and is also overseeing our continuing advancements towards automated lens production facility-wide.

Chrystal Colflesh
General Manager
Chrystal is the General Manager of FEA. Since she started with the company 16 years ago, we have considered her a valuable member of the FEA team. In her role as general manager Chrystal oversees the day to day running of FEA Industries and helps to keep everything running smoothly. To do this she works with managers from each department to make sure that any issues are identified and resolved as quickly as possible.

Company History

Accomplishments

FEA in the Press

Who's who at FEA

William "Bill" Heffner, III

William "Other Bill" Heffner, IV

Chrystal Colflesh