Monica Daniel: a Fresh Perspective

Monica Daniel didn't know what a dental laboratory was until she was hired as a bookkeeper at YDL in 2008, but her lack of industry experience has actually given her a leg up.

"My outside perspective has been extremely beneficial to me because I'm able to look at things in the lab with a fresh eye," she says. "I don't want to do things a certain way just because that's how they've always been done; I try to look at things differently and see where we can streamline workflow or gain efficiencies."

For instance, when Daniel was looking to take on more responsibility at the lab, she set out to learn about how cases were fabricated and moved through the lab so she spent some time in each department, including the model room. "I noticed some cases just sitting there not being worked on and it turned out that the client did his own model work, but the cases still spent two days in the department just like all the other cases," she says. As a result, the lab now sends those cases...