Lab 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.

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

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

3 Faster, Smarter, Better Customer Service Strategies to Boost Your Business: What Are Your Secrets For Excellent Customer Service?

>In this economy, working faster, smarter, better is the key to riding out the storm. Here are 3 easy-to-implement tips that can lead to a leaner, meaner, more efficient laboratory operation. ###Problem: I want to find a concrete way to reward customers who have remained loyal to us and haven't been...

Loyalty Rewards Programs: Build Loyalty, Control Cash Flow and Add Value

Loyalty rewards programs are an effective way to maintain strong relationships with your top clients, encourage their repeat business, optimize cross-selling opportunities and regulate cash flow.

Dedicated Faculty Key to Thriving Technology Programs

Though the number of accredited dental technology programs is dwindling, two programs on opposite coasts—Los Angeles City College and New York City College of Technology—continue to be successful, thanks in part to the dedication of the program direc

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.

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.

11 Retention Strategies That Work

When it comes to holding on to your technicians, money isn’t everything. Employees want challenge, growth opportunities and to truly feel like valued members of your team—not just another cog in the wheel.

By the Numbers: How to Use Them & Improve Them

For those who are intimidated by accounting terminology and financial reports, LMT tells you what to look for, how to understand the reports and explains how to take a systematic approach to running a financially successful laboratory.

Your Balance Sheet: Why It's Important

The balance sheet—comprised of assets, liabilities and the owner’s equity—provides a snapshot of the financial condition of your laboratory at any given time.

Burnout: Are Your Technicians Feeling Tested, Bested, Toasted and Roasted?

Are your technicians stressed, having difficultly concentrating or withdrawing? They may be on the verge of job burnout. Learn how to spot the warning signs and help your technicians survive and thrive when caseloads and overtime are high.

The Dollars and Sense of Pick-Up and Delivery

It is still standard practice in our industry to provide case pick-up and delivery as a free service for local dentist-clients. However, many laboratory owners don't track their...

The J-1 Visa: How to Sponsor An International Technician in Your Lab

LMT explains the application process for obtaining a J-1 visa, which allows overseas technicians to train in U.S. laboratories for up to 18 months.

How to Put a Price Tag On Your Business

LMT explains the valuation process and various methods used by professional appraisers. Also included: strategies for adding value to your laboratory if you are putting it on the market.

The Piecework Payoff

Piecework, once a dirty word in our industry, gets a second look from laboratory owners now convinced that pay-by-the-unit compensation offers them greater control...

Kids With Working Parents

At D&S Dental Laboratory in Wisconsin, President Dick Pilsner, CDT, has extended the idea of a family-friendly work environment to include an on-site daycare center for employees' children.

Prior to the Pitch: How to Secure a Bank Loan

Considering a commercial bank loan to take your business to the next level? LMT offers advice for the financing novice and also explores alternative financing options.

Alternative Financing Options

If a bank isn’t willing to take a risk on your growing laboratory or you simply want to conserve your “borrowing power,” you may want to consider one of these financing alternatives:

R&E Tax Credit: Turn Your Research and Experimentation Efforts Into Dollars

Experimenting with new products? Adding new equipment? Learn how to turn your research and experimentation efforts into dollars for your laboratory; this is especially good news for million-dollar-plus labs.

How to Encourage Your Employees' Service Ethic

How to encourage your employees' service ethic...

Deadbeats: How to Handle Delinquent Accounts

Statistically, 18% of customers are considered “slow” payers and 2% have no intention of ever paying. Chasing deadbeats can be time-consuming and even uncomfortable. However, by taking a proactive, preventive approach and staying on top of delinquent

Collection Letters: One Lab's Approach

Mark Jackson, owner of Precision Ceramics, Montclair, California on writing effective collection letters

A Unique Partnership—Laboratories With Dentists On Staff

Reduced remakes. Technical expertise. Improved communication. Three things almost any laboratory owner would like to have more of, but how? A few progressive laboratory owners tell you—hire a dentist.

More Low-cost and No-cost Morale Boosters

7 Tips to boost employee morale

Cumulative Trauma Disorders: Prevention is the Best Medicine

Thirty-four percent of all workday injuries and illnesses are related to cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs). A claims and loss control expert details how to reduce or avoid CTD claims by minimizing your technicians' risk factors.

Cross Contamination: the Risk and the Reality

Despite OSHA regulations and recommendations from numerous industry groups, laboratories still report that many of their clients aren’t disinfecting impressions and incoming cases. Should you be concerned?

Dental Laboratory Industry Piques FDA Interest

In light of the dramatic rise in imports from overseas laboratories in the past several years, the FDA has become concerned that these low-cost offshore restorations might not contain FDA-approved materials that are legally required to ensure patient

Exit Planning Strategies: Thinking About Selling Your Laboratory?

Experts say you should be thinking about how you'll retire from the moment you open your doors; at the very least, you should begin formulating your plan 10 to 15 years in advance of your expected retirement date.

Exit Plans

If you don't know where you're going, how will you get there? An exit plan is not just about the day you'll leave the laboratory, it's about setting long-term goals so the future doesn't sneak up on you.

Globalization and Automation: Hot Topics at CDLA Meeting

Globalization and automation: hot topics at CDLA meeting

How to Build a Successful Partnership

An effective business partnership can help your laboratory flourish. Together, you have a larger pool of talent and resources. But when a partnership sours, the results can be devastating. Laboratory business partners share what makes their alliances

How to Write a Business Plan

Sherman Borkan, CDT, CM, outlines key details you should consider including in your business plan.

Lab 2 Lab: Why Outsourcing is Win-win

The shortage of skilled technicians and the abundance of new restorative systems are driving the demand for outsourcing. Subcontracting enables laboratory owners to test the market and see how a product fits into their workflow before they buy.

Labs Go Lean

Laboratory owners who have implemented Lean Manufacturing principles reveal how they're eliminating waste, streamlining workflow, reducing turnaround times and ultimately becoming more competitive.

The Legalization of Denturism: a Fight Led By Few

Denturism is now legal in six states: Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Oregon and Washington—and denturists say more legislation is right around the corner. Read on to learn how they did it and if your state may be next.

Make Sure Quality Goes Out the Door...Not Out the Window

Are you confident that every case that goes out the door is representative of your technical standards? Owners share strategies to assure that all restorations leaving their labs are their best work.

Managing Change

Change is a natural process and one of the few constants in life, but it’s also something many people resist. Failure to successfully implement change can be devastating to a laboratory: technicians become preoccupied, productivity drops, gossip and

Mergers and Acquisitions: is Our Cottage Industry Going Corporate?

In the past two years, three private equity firms have invested in dental laboratories and group laboratories have made a considerable number of acquisitions, with some of them being the largest purchases in our industry's history. How are these move

Offshore Competition: How It's Affecting Our Industry

Spurred by the tight economy, chronic shortage of technicians, an ever-increasing need to stay competitive in a price-driven market and the communication ease of the Internet, more and more laboratory owners are considering overseas outsourcing as an

Offshore Outsourcing: Shopping in a Global Market

In our price-competitive, technician-deprived industry, offshore outsourcing is becoming an increasingly viable business strategy.

Outsourcing: How Did We Get Here?

The first wave of out-sourcing began two decades ago with jobs for making shoes, cheap electronics, and toys departing to developing countries. It caused a huge blow to the U.S. manufacturing sector...