Made in Austria: Best-in-Class Quality at Competitive Prices
Georg Eickhoff and Amann Girrbach prioritize helping US laboratories keep production in-house.
When Amann Girrbach says it is committed to the US dental laboratory market, the Austrian company can back up its words with living proof: Georg Eickhoff. After 5 years as the company’s CFO, Eickhoff last year was named President of Amann Girrbach North America, a move he says gives the US market a prominent place in the company’s global operations.
“It was important to us for the American market to receive the attention it deserves at our headquarters,” Eickhoff says. “A significant amount of travel is involved, but our US operations have never been more closely integrated with our headquarters. We have successfully facilitated the US-specific development and marketing of products.”
Amann Girrbach employs a distributor model in the US, but the company maintains a strong customer support system itself as well.
“We take after-sales services very seriously,” Eickhoff says. “Our distributors provide excellent support, but when it comes to the second level—help-desk support, repair service, training customers, and training distribution partners—we believe that this all requires a significant investment in talent from our side.”
Top-level training and support are important because Amann Girrbach is dedicated to “the in-house movement,” which is a phrase it has trademarked. Customer ROI considerations are at the core of every product development.
“Keeping value creation and/or bringing it back in-house is the key to the laboratories’ bottom line,” Eickhoff says, “and we do that by offering an integrated system continuously through upgrades to the entire process chain.”
High Quality at Competitive Prices
Amann Girrbach seeks to accomplish this by offering best-in-class quality at competitive pricing for a wide range of equipment and materials.
Unlike other companies that until recently focused only on analog dentistry or non-dental CNC manufacturing, Amann Girrbach has been dedicated to CNC in dentistry for many years. The company develops and manufactures nearly all of its products at its factory in Koblach, Austria, including producing its own zirconia for the past 10 years. Eickhoff says the Ceramill Motion 2 has become “the blueprint for hybrid mills in the laboratory industry” and Ceramill Zolid FX Multilayer zirconia “is taking over the market.”
“We are a full-range solution provider for dental laboratories,” Eickhoff says. “We do not offer only a scanner, only a mill, or only zirconia. We offer a full process chain, starting with model management and continuing through the full CAD/CAM system. We guarantee perfect integration of hardware and software components and materials throughout the entire process chain.”
Amann Girrbach seeks to help its customers by avoiding the obsolescence factor that is common in many machines. The Ceramill Motion 2 has been on the market for 4 years, and Amann Girrbach continues to make updates available.
“Our modular CAD/CAM system approach allows customers to grow with their needs,” Eickhoff says. “A customer who bought the Ceramill Motion 2 in 2012 only needs to buy a holder for new indications and new software modules when we add capabilities. We eliminate the fear of investing a large amount of money in a system only to see it become obsolete.” The Ceramill materials line, meanwhile, is being continuously improved to maximize efficiency.
“With Ceramill Zolid FX Multilayer, achieving a highly esthetic zirconia solution has never been so easy and quick,” Eickhoff says.
Versatility and Efficiency
The company’s product line offers the highest versatility of indications and materials, driving the laboratory’s ROI. And while Amann Girrbach touts the seamless integration of its wide range of products—and the cost efficiency that accompanies that—the systems are all open.
“It is important that the customer is free to choose each individual component,” Eickhoff says.
With such high-quality, versatile, efficient products at competitive prices, Amann Girrbach is able to help laboratories of all sizes and skill levels offer better restorations.
“We believe every laboratory should be able to utilize CAD/CAM and produce top-level esthetics,” Eickhoff says. “Our anterior zirconia, Knut Miller library teeth, advanced liquids and coloring process, and high-definition milling strategies can help even the average technician produce premium results.”
If laboratories need help maximizing the effectiveness of those products, Amann Girrbach offers elite “knowhow transfer” via training, help desk, and education. In the, there is a team of 12 US-based employees that Eickhoff says is still growing.
“The US has always been a market of strategic importance for us,” Eickhoff says. “Through our US team, I am able to deeply understand the American needs, work with our partners, and provide a voice for that market at our global headquarters.
4 Key Take Aways
Amann Girrbach is dedicated to “the in-house movement,” with customer ROI considerations at the core of every product development.
The company offers a full process chain, starting with model management and continuing through the full CAD/CAM system, including materials.
The Ceramill Motion 2 has become “the blueprint for hybrid mills in the laboratory industry” and the Ceramill Zolid FX Multilayer zirconia “is taking over the market.”
High-quality, versatile, efficient products at competitive prices help laboratories of all sizes and skill levels offer better restorations.
