As dental technology moves rapidly into digital manufacturing, outsourcing will become more widely used. It is not only a less expensive, more efficient means of manufacturing, but offers some unique advantages and interesting work flows.

There are two basic inroads to outsourcing. One, is based on shipping models to an outsource facility for design and manufacturing of parts. Today, most outsource facilities are using this workflow as their primary business model. There are many advantages to outsourcing on this basis.

· A laboratory owner can try new products very easily, simply ship out a case

· Provides access to technologies and products that would otherwise be unobtainable

· No upfront investment in equipment

· No significant learning curve

· Potential exists to become more profitable and more competitive

· Reduced inventories

The most common outsource product today is a coping. So let’s take a look at this new work flow. When outsourcing copings, you eliminate wax-ups, investing, casting, divesting, finishing and opaquing. This provides more time to do higher value processes, like ceramics. Rather than jumping through hoops to stay on schedule and attempting to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, you simply batch your work for two primary procedures, models and dies and ceramics.

When outsourcing design work there is a gray area in the design that often makes for a less than 100% happy customer. You know, give the same case to five different technicians and you get five, distinctly different crowns. They all may be acceptable but they are not the same. This is the gray area. As a result, some outsource facilities provide visual analysis of the CAD for cases they design for you and ask for feedback and authorization prior to manufacturing.

The alternate work flow requires a lab to send digital files to the outsource facility over the internet. In order to accomplish this, the patient’s unique dental anatomy must first be converted to a digital file (often referred to as an STL file). This is now being done in many dental offices through the use of an intraoral scanner. For more information on intraoral scanners you can go to the following links:

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/LavaCOS/3MESPE-LavaCOS

http://www.cadentinc.com/

http://www.sirona.com/ecomaXL/index.php?site=SIRONA_COM_cerec_neuheiten_2009_bluecam

If your dentist is using the analog approach, it will be your responsibility to convert either the analog impression or conventional models and dies to a digital format. This can be easily accomplished with a laboratory scanner. There are over a dozen available in the market today. All of the advantages from the model base system, apply here. The one exception is the need to purchase a scanner and learn how to use it. Some additional advantages of this work flow are as follows:

· Reduced manufacturing cycles….. It will soon become possible to obtain an STL file and have Models, Dies and additional components of the final restoration, fabricated and shipped in 24 to 48 hours, thus, making it possible to produce complete restorations in just a few of days.

· All design specifications can be completely managed by the laboratory ordering the parts (no gray).

· Reduced shipping costs, as models never get shipped to the outsource provider, also resulting in reduced delivery time.