Global handpiece manufacturer boosts North American presence

But the strategy has also meant that there are many dental professionals who still aren’t sure about what makes NSK so different in the handpiece market.

That’s about to change.

The dental equipment manufacturer, founded in 1930 in Japan, is raising its U.S. and Canadian profile in a big way, perhaps most tangibly to date by the May 2011 opening of its newly constructed North American headquarters in Illinois. The facility includes a showroom, training facility, expanded warehouse space and a larger parts and service center.

“The company made the decision last year to increase its investment in North America in 2011,” said NSK Dental Marketing Manager Rob Gochoel. “We’ve also added office and technical-service staff, and an internal team of representatives who will be able to work directly with a greater number of dental practices.”

The company is also expanding its distributor relationships. As a whole, the efforts should enable NSK to provide information about its unique business model to most of the dental practices in North America.

 

The company’s efforts also include an expanded dental convention presence, which began with the 2011 Greater New York Dental Meeting, so practitioners are more easily able to hold an NSK handpiece and experience firsthand what has enabled the company to become one of the top handpiece manufacturers in the world.

“We’re making the investment in an opportunity to connect with more customers,” Gochoel said. “Not only will we be able to handle customer questions and inquiries much faster, but we also will be able to further develop a sense of loyalty by developing even more personal-relationships with doctors.”

Innovation based on input
Close relationships with its customers are critical to the company, because that is what has driven its global growth for more than eight decades. “Everybody is pretty excited,” said NSK Dental President Mirco Stiehle. “We have very good feedback from the market so far. I am looking forward to working with dental professionals and learning more about what they want from us because that’s where we’re coming from. We need to understand what we need to be doing to be successful in the U.S. And that means providing products that fit to the customer demand.”

NSK is able to respond quickly and specifically to localized needs because it maintains complete in-house control of the manufacturing process. An example of how such a philosophy translates into real products is the NSK S-Max Pico, which has the smallest head and neck size of any handpiece on the market. NSK built it in response to requests from practices in Asian markets with higher numbers of patients with smaller-than-average mouths. Interestingly, a bonus realized by the company’s willingness to address this need is that the S-Max Pico has gone on to also receive high interest from pediatric practitioners throughout the world.

“We know there are other needs out there that aren’t being met,” Gochoel said. “We want to provide options based on what customers are asking for.”

Key to the company’s ability to develop equipment in direct response to customer need is its commitment to controlling the entire manufacturing process. Nearly 90 percent of the 17,000-plus parts that go into the creation of its handpieces are manufactured in house.

Focus on quality starts at the top
In addition to supporting its market responsiveness, NSK’s keep-it-in-house philosophy enables it to relentlessly control quality at every step of the development, testing and manufacturing process. “Quality is really the top priority for us,” Stiehle said, “especially for Eiichi Nakanishi [NSK president and CEO].”

Nakanishi, confirmed that statement: “Since the founding of the company,” he said, “we have adhered to very strict quality controls to make sure our products earn dentists’ satisfaction. We have strong policies on manufacturing almost all components in-house. Currently about 90 percent of the mechanical components, including electric micromotors and high-speed ball bearings, are manufactured in-house. No other competitors can make ball bearings and micromotors in-house like we do. This is one of our biggest strengths and competitive advantages.”

Based in Japan, but frequently traveling the world, Nakanishi described his core role at NSK as being to ensure the global organization has a strong, motivated team in place with a clear understanding of what it takes to delight customers.

“We have the engineering excellence needed to enable dental professionals to make their dream products real,” Nakanishi said. “We want to listen to the voices of dentists in order to develop very useful and wonderful products.”

Stiehle said that responding to specific customer demand isn’t limited to a product‘s purpose and function. “It’s not just that we offer a product in every category of dentistry from a clinical point of view,” Stiehle said. “It also means offering a range of price points.”

Cost sensitivity also drives the company’s focus on providing one of the largest selections of coupler adapters available to make it easier for practitioners to test-drive and purchase an NSK handpiece. “Our intent is to make it as easy as possible to integrate an NSK handpiece into the practice,” Gochoel said. “By being compatible with virtually all competitor coupler systems, we eliminate the need to buy a lot of additional couplers or incur the expense of retrofitting all the operatories. It’s just one more example of a smart, customer-centric focus.”

Rounding out the commitment to quality assurance, pricing options and responsiveness is awareness that the ultimate customer is the patient. “I am a strong believer in the need to be aware that we are a medical device company, and that with that comes a huge responsibility, not just in terms of quality, but also comfort and safety of the patient, Stiehle said. “When I am sitting in the dentist chair, I want to make sure that I am worked on with the best product out there. That’s what is most important to us: the safety and comfort of the patient.”