Zubmill - New Russian Dental-Aliexpress
Our residents - the team of the Zubmill project - Mikhail Chernov and Albert Bashirov - popularly talk about the globalization of the dental market and how the Russian startup will have to deal with it with China and the United States.
All leading companies have placed their production in China. But not only because of the minimization of expenses, but also because of the speed of learning - in China it is 2.4 times higher than the European. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the stories in which a startup announces a fundraiser for a prototype on Kickstarter, and after a week sees its product on Aliexpress - China has a fantastic speed of copying ideas.
In this preface, we did not discover America, we will return to dentistry. Today, there are 1,571 residents per dentist in the United States, 1138 in Europe, and in China this figure reached 9174. And today, Chinese dentistry is more developed than in Germany, for example. The growth rate of China's dentistry in the world occupies a leading position (see chart)
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Where dentistry - there and dental laboratories. China is amazed at the number of large (more than 300 dental technicians), super-large (more than 500 dental technicians) and even megabyte large (more than 1000 dental technicians) laboratories. The quality of their products is relatively average.
We decided to cut our expenses and turned our attention towards China, but the level of quality naturally stops us. But nothing prevents us from ordering only the frame, but to individualize it in the country of the dentist. A number of laboratories in the USA and Germany operate according to this scheme. In the United States, the number of sales representatives of laboratories from China is equal to the number of sales representatives of local laboratories. The highly competitive market has become even more competitive.
Now the next question arises - how to choose a laboratory in China? Need something like "dental-aliexpress". That's why we created ZUBMILL. From November 2015, we began to form bases of laboratories from China. One of the areas chosen to receive orders from US dentists, and their execution - in China. But, as always, there are several "but".
How to achieve super-fast logistics? How to maintain consistent product quality?
The first question was answered by the dentists themselves - the data must be digital. Sending an impression of the dentition is impractical, since it entails a large number of costs and risks. Plus, in order to reduce the cost of transportation, it is required to complete the cast in large quantities, and this entails the cost of valuable time for the dentist and the patient.
How to deal with the fact that the number of digital images even in the United States exceeds a little more than 18%? What is holding back growth?
We interviewed dentists from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco (a survey of 60 people) and received 2 kinds of answers — low quality digital prints and high costs. After a more detailed discussion, it turned out that most of the respondents used outdated scanner models, where the quality of the digital cast is actually worse than the analog one. However, the technology itself is improving every year and today the intraoral scanner allows you to remove the entire jaw arc with a minimum deviation of 20-30 microns.
It remains to reduce the cost - this is where the business model is understood and studied. We provide a scanner for rent with payment for the fact of scanning. The dentist does not need to purchase expensive equipment or make monthly payments. It only incurs costs in the form of a fixed cost per unit of product when using a scanner. But again, the question arises of ultra-fast delivery of finished structures from China to the United States.
In addition, of course, there are many nuances: it is necessary to confirm that the material is non-toxic and complies with safety requirements, as well as product guarantees are important. We see the following solution - working with manufacturers of materials for monitoring facts of material use, test purchases by secret buyers, certification of Chinese laboratories with their own standards.
Globalization in the field of ordering dental constructions makes it possible to reduce the cost of the constructions and, as a result, to increase the margins of the dental business.
And finally, we dream that the crowns will no longer be counted as medical devices, and we will be able to freely move the patient’s copies across the border without falling under Article 238.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation additives.
All leading companies have placed their production in China. But not only because of the minimization of expenses, but also because of the speed of learning - in China it is 2.4 times higher than the European. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the stories in which a startup announces a fundraiser for a prototype on Kickstarter, and after a week sees its product on Aliexpress - China has a fantastic speed of copying ideas.
In this preface, we did not discover America, we will return to dentistry. Today, there are 1,571 residents per dentist in the United States, 1138 in Europe, and in China this figure reached 9174. And today, Chinese dentistry is more developed than in Germany, for example. The growth rate of China's dentistry in the world occupies a leading position (see chart)
')
Where dentistry - there and dental laboratories. China is amazed at the number of large (more than 300 dental technicians), super-large (more than 500 dental technicians) and even megabyte large (more than 1000 dental technicians) laboratories. The quality of their products is relatively average.
We decided to cut our expenses and turned our attention towards China, but the level of quality naturally stops us. But nothing prevents us from ordering only the frame, but to individualize it in the country of the dentist. A number of laboratories in the USA and Germany operate according to this scheme. In the United States, the number of sales representatives of laboratories from China is equal to the number of sales representatives of local laboratories. The highly competitive market has become even more competitive.
Now the next question arises - how to choose a laboratory in China? Need something like "dental-aliexpress". That's why we created ZUBMILL. From November 2015, we began to form bases of laboratories from China. One of the areas chosen to receive orders from US dentists, and their execution - in China. But, as always, there are several "but".
How to achieve super-fast logistics? How to maintain consistent product quality?
The first question was answered by the dentists themselves - the data must be digital. Sending an impression of the dentition is impractical, since it entails a large number of costs and risks. Plus, in order to reduce the cost of transportation, it is required to complete the cast in large quantities, and this entails the cost of valuable time for the dentist and the patient.
How to deal with the fact that the number of digital images even in the United States exceeds a little more than 18%? What is holding back growth?
We interviewed dentists from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco (a survey of 60 people) and received 2 kinds of answers — low quality digital prints and high costs. After a more detailed discussion, it turned out that most of the respondents used outdated scanner models, where the quality of the digital cast is actually worse than the analog one. However, the technology itself is improving every year and today the intraoral scanner allows you to remove the entire jaw arc with a minimum deviation of 20-30 microns.
It remains to reduce the cost - this is where the business model is understood and studied. We provide a scanner for rent with payment for the fact of scanning. The dentist does not need to purchase expensive equipment or make monthly payments. It only incurs costs in the form of a fixed cost per unit of product when using a scanner. But again, the question arises of ultra-fast delivery of finished structures from China to the United States.
In addition, of course, there are many nuances: it is necessary to confirm that the material is non-toxic and complies with safety requirements, as well as product guarantees are important. We see the following solution - working with manufacturers of materials for monitoring facts of material use, test purchases by secret buyers, certification of Chinese laboratories with their own standards.
Globalization in the field of ordering dental constructions makes it possible to reduce the cost of the constructions and, as a result, to increase the margins of the dental business.
And finally, we dream that the crowns will no longer be counted as medical devices, and we will be able to freely move the patient’s copies across the border without falling under Article 238.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation additives.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/320846/
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