A Day in the Life… of Prosthetics’ production in York
Production of Dentsply Sirona material and products in York, Pennsylvania dates back 99 years. In this edition of ‘A Day in the Life’, Spotlight takes you into the York facility to highlight the people, production and passion for dental care residing at 470 College Avenue.
Plant Manager, Ken Strickhouser, began his career at Dentsply Sirona 26 years ago. Throughout the years, Dentsply Sirona provided a learning environment for Ken as he obtained certifications, degrees, and Bridge Awards for improving processes throughout the Company. “My calling is for the customer,” said Strickhouser, “Through operational excellence, the team here delivers solutions to improve dental care in the most efficient and safe way.” His unrelenting commitment to Dentsply Sirona began long before his career, following in his mother’s footsteps she was employed by Dentsply Sirona during his childhood. The journey of Ken and Prosthetics’ production in York depicts stories throughout a century of meeting the dental industry’s needs in Pennsylvania.
Daniel Suero, Wax Wheel Processor, scrapping down the wheel to adjust the thickness and quality of the wax produced from the wax production department. Daniel also mixes the multiple natural wax products through a manufacturing instruction sheet specific to Dentsply Sirona batch records. There is no other company offering wax through natural products such as beeswax.
Diane Lewis, Hand Piece Technician, assembling a Pneumatic driven QC700 Dental Handpiece that is typically used in dental laboratories.
The plant is home to 17 departments producing matrix bands, visible light cure, flexseal patterns, and wax products with Lean Cell rooms to achieve and control the proper environments. Repairs, customer service and design are also key responsibilities at the facility.
Culture is key at our plant. Our culture’s strength brings out the best in our people by helping each other maintain our goals, we achieve a sustainable and trusting cadence of operations.
This cadence is not something the facility employees take lightly. Each day, team leads meet with a purpose to discuss their goals and tack rates, and solve solutions before shifts begin. As one team, departments work in a predictive environment versus reactive throughout the plant. “Our status board allows transparency and trust to build across our 267 team members. This helps drive team success, assisting each other up who may be falling behind, while recognizing those who rise above and beyond expectations,” said Sue Gunnet, Prosthetics US HR Director.
Did you know?
Approximately 18,000 full shade guides and over 31 million plastic teeth are produced each year at the facility.
Tours are provided to the public at request.
Quality Assurance and R&D teams obtain provisional machined products and samples from the plant.
The facility operates 24 hours a day through three waves of shift time slots. (this is true for plastic teeth and matrix bands only. All other areas are first shift only.
Materials and produced for more than just Prosthetics, including global inter-company production for Restorative and Preventive.