February 2024

Adam and Adrielle Ahokas sold their first lab in 2017 and moved to Javea, Spain, to do missionary work on behalf of Jehovah’s Witnesses and expose their two teenage sons to a different culture. When the pandemic hit, they moved back to Cary, NC, and Adam taught himself how to scan and design, mainly...

Welcome to The Productivity Issue, jam-packed with tips for enhancing productivity and profitability, managing remakes and maximizing metrics. To put this issue together, we talked to dozens of lab owners about their most successful productivity strategies—both large and small—and their efforts...

Key Performance Indicators can help you formulate a strategy, measure progress and ignite employee motivation.

By Shannon LeBlanc, Chief Operations Officer; Hallmark Dental Laboratory in Halifax, NS; 63 employees

In the last five years, we’ve doubled our laboratory’s revenue and I would attribute much of that growth to our efforts to enhance our productivity and efficiency. The ability to continually...

Last year, my husband Kevin and I visited The Argen Corp. and were blown away by its Lean Manufacturing operation. We had visited one year earlier and were amazed by the noticeable changes and systems they had implemented across the entire operation in just a year’s time. This inspired us to start...

By Ira Dickerman, CDT, TE, Owner; Dickerman Dental Prosthetics in Sharon, MA; 36 employees

RxWizard is our customized lab management software and customer portal. While it took 15 months of discussions and analyzing to complete, our effort has paid off tremendously and now we have a robust, integrated software platform that gives me incredible control over our internal production. Here are...

We began documenting our procedures about 10 years ago to help make the training process as self-guided, efficient and painless as possible.

I started by taking a macro view of our lab’s procedures and creating a short checklist or outline for each. I began with our lab’s simplest tasks—like...

We had had a few remakes due to poor intraoral scans and, although I can usually catch problems before I start designing, I decided to focus some effort on training assistants and doctors about scan clarity, especially when working with scan bodies.

Initially, I called the offices that were having issues...

By Conrad Rensburg, CDT, Owner/President; Absolute Dental Services,

headquartered in Durham, NC, and operating out of four locations across the Southeast

In 2018, I was working for my in-laws and, since they planned to retire, they offered to sell the lab to me. I was hesitant because I watched them for years and knew what lab life was like: 16-hour days, working weekends, etc. However, we were just starting to get into digital and I saw the opportunity...

Three years ago we switched to half-day Fridays—we work from 8:30am to noon but still get paid for an eight-hour day—and everyone loves it. We let our clients know about the change a month before we started and I can’t think of a single time any client has had an issue with it.

A...

By John Dumas, Co-Owner & Orthodontist; Motor City Lab Works in Birmingham, MI; 35 employees

When I first encountered ChatGPT, OpenAI’s advanced natural language processing model, I was intrigued by its potential to streamline various tasks in our lab. It’s a tool that can tap into vast amounts of data, answer questions, and write in a customized conversational style.

I’m...

I started my lab in 2020 and my focus is fabricating ortho appliances and 3D printing and design. To me, the key to being productive is to be organized and meticulous; two software packages have been instrumental in helping me do that:

Most of my work comes in via STL files and with all the different...

We have focused on streamlining production in a few different ways. One big time saver is offering our “Digital Only” setup, meaning the dentist can opt to receive only the restoration with no model work regardless of whether it’s a digital impression or a traditional PVS impression.

Since...

Early last year, we had a staff shortage on our five-technician design team due to illness and I knew I needed a backup plan. When I reviewed our workflow as a whole, I saw that 50% of the 300 fixed cases we receive weekly were simple, single-unit posteriors so I began exploring our outsourcing options.

We...

In this day of dwindling labor resources for labs, I’m using two strategies to stay productive. Since 2018, we’ve been buying intraoral scanners and placing them in our clients’ offices. I often hear labs say this is too expensive but we now have 14 units in the field that generate...

When I opened my C&B lab in 1991, I offered a two-week turnaround. As word about my work spread, I got so busy that I was working seven days a week, even after hiring help. I decided to be more proactive about scheduling and implemented a manual pre-scheduling system so I could better plan my workflow....

By Chester Garcia, Chief Operating Officer; Spectrum Killian Dental Lab Alliance; about 300 employees in five locations

When our lab experienced rapid growth, I realized that having all-around technicians handling multiple fabrication steps was no longer efficient, so we revamped our workflow and switched to step production. The result has been a substantial increase in productivity.

For example, in the CAD department,...

In order to increase productivity, we began looking at how work moves through the lab. And while the term ‘backlog’ is generally thought to be negative, we found three areas where a bit of a case backlog would be particularly beneficial.

In our milling department we used to nest and mill...

When we look at the future, it seems 3D printing will be the defacto production method for a huge portion of restorations, especially chairside. Our value to our clients will be in the design phase, given our ability to rectify functional problems based on our years of experience. Since we serve a lot...

My philosophy for building a highly productive team starts with hiring people with no dental technology experience. They’re fresh, green and eager to learn. I don’t need to break any bad habits they might have learned at another lab and can train them to our standards.

I also prefer to...

Our lab relies heavily on 3D printers to print models. While the technology offers a wealth of benefits, it also presents several challenges. For example, one dedicated technician is needed to scrape off the models and clean the build plates of our 13 Formlabs printers. When we were printing 100-plus...

The time study data we collect is like our bible and has had a major impact on our efficiency and profitability. Our lab has been collecting this data since it was just my father and two technicians; he would time himself doing tasks and then, given his level of experience, add a 20% buffer for the other...

By Bret Royal, Director, Guided Surgery; Implant Concierge in San Antonio, TX; 65 employees

"LMT’s exclusive 2024 Remake Survey Report delves into digital technology's impact on remakes and how lab operators best control them."