Part 2: Boost Your Profitability through Effective Supply Chain Strategies.

Welcome back to the second part 2 of our series dedicated to enhancing the performance and productivity of your dental practice. If you missed the first part that focused on practice owners, please click here to access it.

There is an age-old proverb: “Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves”.

This saying encompasses a timeless truth: the power of concentrating on smaller, essential elements to achieve significant outcomes. For dental practices, this principle can be supported by focussing on meticulous management of the supply-chain function.

Consider this scenario: to provide patients with the right treatment, a dental practice must have the correct materials readily available. This seemingly straightforward task, however, involves a complex web of systems and processes. From sourcing materials at the best prices to tracking orders and managing invoices, the responsibility falls heavily on the front-office team. A dental practice, with its myriad functions, is anything but simple to run smoothly.

Managing the purchasing and inventory management function involves a sequence of intricate processes that must seamlessly combine to ensure the uninterrupted flow of materials directly to a patient in the dental chair. Even in a practice of 1-2 chairs, an estimated 8 hours of labour per week is necessary to support this function. Larger practices, with more dentists and patients, demand even more time and effort.

Fortunately, advancements in technology and the emergence of use of a SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms like Restocq, have revolutionized supply-chain management for dental practices. These platforms provide end-to-end solutions, saving practices valuable time and resources. By adopting such proven platforms, dental practices can recover lost hours, access all their suppliers and prices in one location and redirect their focus back to their core mission: serving patients.

A dental practice that chooses to utilise an effective and proven platform like Restocq, will quickly recover these lost hours. Plus enjoy savings with access to all suppliers and their prices in one location. With these recouped hours, the team can be freed up to focus on the main mission of the dental practice: to serve its patients.

As the proverb suggested, when attention is channelled into fewer tasks, particularly the essential act of serving patients, positive results naturally follow. Increased production, improved performance, more referrals, and a healthier bottom line. These are all natural byproducts of streamlined supply chain strategies.

To drive this point home, consider this timeless poem:

For the Want of a Nail by Anonymous

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost.
For want of a horse, the rider was lost.
For want of a rider, the battle was lost.
For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.