From Broker to Overseas Facility Owner

Roy Shu, Shu Dental Lab, Morrisville, Pennsylvania, tells how a larger technician pool, reduced operating expenses and a desire to expand his operation led him to open his own laboratory in China.

A decade ago, laboratory Owner Roy Shu faced the all-to-familiar struggle of finding quality technicians and, as a result, was working 70- to 80-hour weeks to get the work out the door. "I had a staff of 12 technicians but I always found myself having to cover for someone who called in sick or didn't show up. And forget about replacing technicians who left; I could run a newspaper ad for a year and never receive a phone call," says Shu. "I was so frustrated and on my way to total burnout."

Shu's answer at that time was outsourcing to China. Because he was born there--he immigrated to the U.S. in 1974 and graduated from a New York dental technology school two years later--he speaks the language and has many connections in the Chinese dental laboratory...