High-end craftsmanship
Ceramist Ryo Miwa
Ryo Miwa’s lab in Warsaw is dedicated to high-end customers, seeking the best materials and highest quality of work. The owner upgraded his lab in 2018 with a dental milling machine, which shortens the work process with two days and makes it possible to deliver a better product to the customers.
The work of a dental technician is a matter of great craftsmanship. A part of the process is carried out mechanically by the scanner that makes the digital impression and the milling machine which mills the product. The details on the final product is made by hand and this is where the truly skilled technicians stand out; the ones that can make a crown of the highest quality, which the customers will pay for.
“The milling machines handles about 70% of the work, the less fun part, that takes time. It gives me more time to talk to my customers and to create the best final result”, explains Ryo Miwa. He owns the dental lab, Ceramist Ryo in Warsaw, Poland, and has added a DWX-52D milling machine from DGSHAPE to his equipment in 2018. Overall, the purchase of the new milling machine has helped him create a more efficient business as the rough fabrication now has been mechanised, which frees up time for the employees to attend to other tasks.
More free time
The restorative dentistry market in Warsaw is driven by recommendations. A good lab gets its customers through word of mouth and this has also been Ryo Miwa’s way into the market. He was trained in Poland and worked at a lab for a few years before becoming an independent business owner. “My mother was also self-employed, and it has always been a big dream for me to run my own lab”, Ryo Miwa explains.
Today, ten years after starting his business, Ryo Miwa employs two dental technicians besides himself and among his customers are several dentists in Warsaw. Ryo Miwa’s business is not based on competitive pricing, instead his business model is built on fast delivery and supreme quality. “Our customers want a nice looking, high-quality product which is more important to them than the price”, says Ryo Miwa.
There are of course other parameters that matter to the customers, such as time, and this is where the DWX-52D milling machine has made a big difference. Previously, the lab took three 8-hour working days to produce a crown. The production time has now been cut down to one day. Before Ryo Miwa invested in a milling machine for the lab, he sent away the work to an external vendor who milled the crowns and sending these back and forth contributed to longer delivery times.
“The milling machine can work during the night which frees up time for us to bring new customers on board”, Ryo Miwa says.
Ryo Miwa highlights that the upgrade to the DWX-52D is not about getting his business to grow. He is satisfied with the current size of his business and Ryo Miwa does not consider turnover or number of employees as measures of success. For him it is about being able to deliver high-quality craftsmanship to those customers seeking a top-quality product.
“Sending work to an external vendor not only affected the production time, the vendor also only offered to mill one single type of material. Now that we have our own milling device, we can choose from a wide range of materials, which makes it possible to deliver a final result that fits the preferences of each customer”, says Ryo Miwa.
He typically uses zirconia, when the customer wants the best of the best. This allows him to hit the perfect finish for the customer. The lab also serves customers who would like to go for a less costly crown and that can be done by changing the material. The milling machine thereby gives Ryo Miwa several options to hit the perfect product that fits the needs and wishes of the customer regarding quality and appearance.
“There is no doubt that the purchase of the DWX-52D has made my business more efficient. It cannot do all of our tasks, but it handles all the tedious work and allows us to spend more time on the high quality we want to deliver”, says Ryo Miwa.
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