How to use manufacturing statistics when tolerancing a lens system

Certain companies particularly those with strong design and optical manufacturing units keep strict but private statistical records regarding optical manufacturing and also use the data for design purposes. Design houses without manufacturing sectors are at a disadvantage. However, there is a small but growing public body of knowledge regarding these statistics. In this work, we develop a process to go from gathering raw manufacturing data to using the data for lens system tolerancing. We will describe a tolerancing practice using CODE V and our existing data with the goal of improving our ability to predict manufacturing outcomes. We present reasonable parameter values for the truncated normal and other distributions for variables such as wedge. In some cases, we will link the parameter values to standard tolerance categories that many manufacturers give: commercial, precision, and high precision. The tolerancing method will use established CODE V practice as well as macros with parameter values derived from data as one of the inputs. An example of how to use these techniques on a lens design will be given. We also provide an appendix that classifies glass type by manufacturability. The data provided in the appendix can be used in the tolerancing process.