W&H Impex
Challenges for modern, industrial production
W&H Dentalwerk Bürmoos GmbH located north of Salzburg and is one of the world's leading suppliers of innovative technologies for dental practices, dental clinics, dental laboratories and maxillofacial surgery. By tailoring production to meet its daily customer requirements precisely, W&H has been setting standards in modern industrial manufacturing for many years. Increasing cost pressure, variety and strict quality requirements are decisive issues which W&H has to face to master the new challenges on the dental market.
With over 1,000 employees total around the world and 19 subsidiaries, we are well known as one of the leading manufacturers in the dental industry. The production of precision dental instruments such as high speed- and straight and contra-angle low speed handpieces has been one of our core competences for many years now. Manufacturing in Central Europe, our company is now subject to more intense cost pressure. According to the Austrian Federal Chamber of Economy (WKÖ), while total labour costs are around $43 per working hour in Austria and Germany, they are only around $4.5 in selected Eastern European countries. In countries like China and India the labour costs are even way lower than that. Strict labour laws and safety standards and the austerity environmental regulations are both examples of additional competitive disadvantages.
Yet another challenge is posed by rising energy prices, which are also driving production costs higher and higher. Europe's energy prices are considerably higher than those in the USA or China. In addition to the more intense cost situation, we are also facing the challenge to meet the evolving market conditions and customer requirements.
Changed market requirements in focus
Due to the globally increasing hygiene requirements in the dental world, we are required to use more and more high-performance materials, which are considerably more difficult to machine. Combined with the advancing tendency towards product miniaturization, the complexity of our parts and components is also increasing.
For many years now we have been observing a trend towards tailored products. Whereas productivity used to be associated with the production of large batches in the past, we are now faced with the task of producing smaller quantities of a wide range of different products on a daily basis. Consequently, modern industrial operations are required to implement completely new logistical structures in order to keep up with the evolving market requirements.
In light of the increasing technological competition, we are observing considerable shorter innovative cycles. Whereas a new product generation was expected on average every 8-10 years on the not too long ago, the dental market now expects new products on an average of 4-6 years.
A step ahead with state-of-the-art processes
The challenges for us in production are in developing suitable production processes and efficient production logistics. At W&H, we see the solution in automated logistics requiring as few interventions as possible and with very short ordering and delivery intervals. To be able to achieve this, time requirements – and accordingly the costs for converting our complex CNC machines – must be reduced to a minimum. As we set great effort by complete one step machining in our production, manual resetting of parts is a thing of the past. Second step machining and manual processing is avoided wherever possible. This increases not only our competitiveness, but also the quality of our products and still cut overhead costs at the same time.
Top production competence thanks to qualified personnel
In order to guarantee a constant product quality, we put special emphasis on qualified employees here at W&H. Driven by the increasing challenges in production and logistics, the requirements on the qualification profiles of our staff are also evolving. Due to the increasing complexity of our CNC machines, the continually rising programming efforts and the use of diverse tools and special tools, the comprehensive training and instruction of our skilled workers is becoming ever more important.
Thanks to our sophisticated internal training systems for apprentices and young professionals, W&H early on lays the foundations for specialized workers in industrial production. Up to 8% of our staff at our headquarters in Bürmoos are currently doing apprenticeships in skilled careers. Continually training and supporting specialized workers in our company makes it possible for us to offer state-of-the-art dental instruments and products best equipped to satisfy the strict international requirements of modern dentistry. Our highly qualified employees and the new production and logistics processes allow us to increase competitiveness and as such to secure the future of our production site in Central Europe.
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