Articles Management

Cost-Cutting Strategies

In the latest installment of Barry D. The Lab Guy, Laboratory Owner Mike Hill explains his strategies for protecting the bottom line.

Relationship Boosters

Six ways proactive laboratory owners are keeping their customer relationships strong and the cases flowing in.

29 Tips to Maximize Your Connection With Dentist-Clients

From consistency and good service to referrals and successful seminars, these tips and techniques help you maintain the relationships you have and find the customers you want.

How to Reduce Labor-to-Sales Ratios and Remakes and Increase Productivity

>The cost of labor can constitute as much as 50% of production costs in some laboratories, making it a key factor in determining the success of the business. One of the fairest and most effective ways management can reduce labor-to-sales ratios and remakes, as well as increase productivity is to implement...

Seven Ways the 'New' Economy is Changing Dentistry

Perhaps no single event in the last 100 years of dentistry has had a greater impact than the recent recession. Dr. Roger Levin explains how the economy is affecting your dentist-clients and what it might mean for their futures.

To Overcome Grim Economic Challenges, Laboratory Breathes Life Into Service Effort

Declining profits and the loss of its largest client would send even the healthiest laboratory reeling. But as a result of its customer-focused plan, Jesse and Frichtel Dental Labs in Pittsburgh, PA, has emerged stronger and poised for growth.

Knight: Doing It Right

Thanks to a number of strategic decisions over the past few years, Oldsmar, FL-based Knight Dental Group's annual output per technician has nearly doubled!

How to Stay Alive in Today's Market

3Shape Co-Founder Tais Clausen offers advice for maximizing your competitive edge and taking advantage of positive market trends.

Faster, Smarter, Better: 36 Strategies to Boost Your Business

Have an ingenious marketing strategy? Innovative cost-cutting idea? New way to streamline production? Share your best business boosting strategies with over 3,000 of your peers on THE BRIDGE!

From the Series: Faster, Smarter, Better: 36 Strategies to Boost Your Business

Faster, Smarter, Better: 6 Financial Strategies to Boost Your Business. Share Your Money Saving Tips Here!

February 2012-- ###Problem: My lab is tight on cash and I'm looking to better control my inventory costs. Strategy: Keeping a tight reign on your inventory and not stocking a lot of extra materials can be a great idea--especially when it comes to high-priced metals and implant components. On the...

From the Series: Faster, Smarter, Better: 36 Strategies to Boost Your Business

8 Faster, Smarter, Better Management Strategies to Boost Your Business: We Want to Hear Your Management Strategies

###Problem: I'd like to implement pre-scheduling to help make our workload more consistent; we're overwhelmed one day and slow the next. Strategy: Pre-scheduling—where the laboratory, rather than the dentist, determines the turnaround time for each case—helps ensure an even workflow,...

From the Series: Faster, Smarter, Better: 36 Strategies to Boost Your Business

Faster, Smarter, Better: 6 Personnel Strategies to Boost Your Business

>In this economy, working faster, smarter, better is the key to riding out the storm. Here are 6 easy-to-implement tips that can lead to a leaner, meaner, more efficient laboratory operation. ###Problem: I feel like my staff is very fragmented, especially between departments. I need some strategies...

Outside Vs. Inside Sales Reps: How Compensation Packages Differ

The primary objectives and responsibilities of an outside vs. inside sales rep differ and so do their compensation packages. Nick Azar offers average salary ranges and guidelines for commission.

Glidewell Laboratories: 'Crossing the Traditional Boundaries of Dental Technology'

Glidewell Laboratories is once again “crossing the traditional boundaries of dental technology” with the opening of its 2,800-sq-ft, state-of-the-art training, education and technology demonstration facility.

State of Education: Feeling the Pressure, Industry Responds to Training Needs

The technology learning curve for both dentists and technicians is ramping up to a never-before-seen level, putting tremendous pressure on laboratory owners to educate themselves, their staff members and their dentist-clients. LMT looks at the indust

Two Labs in One: Laboratories Ride the Wave of High-end Dentistry

There's a surge of interest in high-end dentistry and progressive laboratory owners are riding the crest of the wave.

The Art of the Appointment

By asking their dentist-clients to make an appointment for each case, owners and managers are using pre-scheduling systems to solve one of the most chronic production problems in the laboratory—fluctuating workflow.

Implants: Now a Standard of Care

Thanks to advances in CAD/CAM technology, immediate-loading implants and internal connection designs, implants are becoming the restorative dentist's first choice in tooth replacement.

Let's Get Personnel: a Guide to Creating An Employee Policy Manual

Whether you have five technicians or 50, employees need to know what you expect from them and what they can expect from you.

Professional Employer Organization: An Offsite Human Resource Department For Your Laboratory

By outsourcing the human resources functions of their businesses to professional employer organizations (PEO), lab owners gain a valuable partner with personnel management expertise...

The Training Crisis: How It's Affecting Our Industry

In the face of a perpetual lack of newcomers to the field and a wealth of technologically advanced products, laboratory owners face a training challenge on two fronts: they need to educate their technicians and their dentist-clients.

The Generation X Gap

Generation X is the term used to describe Americans born between 1964 and 1981—but they’ve also been referred to as disloyal and demanding, especially by their baby-boomer managers. Generation gaps aren’t new...

Disclosure, Registration and Regulations: What You Need to Know

An overview of disclosure, FDA registration and regulations that every laboratory owner needs to know.

Regulations May Help Improve China's Image

China has implemented new labor laws and environmental regulations and is changing tax incentives in an effort to pacify citizens and encourage an exodus of factories.