60% more than last year
Hired 26 people to build capacity
“We’re going to scale both production and quality”
Minish Institute of Dental Technology has launched its largest recruitment drive in its history with the goal of producing 70,000 Minish restorations in 2026. This is a 60% increase from last year and will require an average production rate of 200 restorations per day.
The new hires include three veterans and 23 new hires, totaling 26 people. This is the largest single hire since the institute’s founding. The total number of researchers at Qigong Institute has increased to 69.
The new researchers, who joined the company in early February, are currently being trained in stages from CAD/CAM principles to minish design, milling, printing, and adapting processes, with a basic understanding of porous materials and management systems. Only those who pass the test after a one-year training period are put to work. Experienced researchers are put to work after a one-month adaptation period.
The reason behind the large-scale hiring is the steadily increasing order volume. In January of this year, researchers at the Minish Institute made a New Year’s resolution to reach 70,000 restorations by the end of the year. The mood in the lab is better than ever, thanks to the transfusion of young blood.
Total provider orders grew 11% year-over-year to nearly 5,000 units. Orders from domestic providers, including Minish Dental Hospital, have increased significantly, and orders from overseas providers are also rising rapidly. Overseas expansion is also accelerating, with 50 new providers signing up at a seminar in Japan in early February, exceeding expectations.
Expanding the space is also under discussion. A year and a half after expanding from one floor to two, the company is looking to expand again. Due to the increase in the number of people, there are not enough seats, so some of them are using portable chairs. In the long run, they are also planning to utilize the entire building of the Minish Dental Hospital as a machine shop.
Along with expanding production, the company is also focusing on quality control. To better understand the needs of overseas providers, the company is strengthening cooperation with the Minish sales team, which is composed of dental technicians and foreign workers. The company is also reducing unnecessary work steps by reorganizing process flows and reassigning roles.
“The expansion of the machine shop is a process of laying the foundation to stably handle many cases in the future,” said Jeong Jeong-mi, head of the Minish Machine Shop, “and we will continue to grow our internal capabilities through systematic training in line with the pace of Minish’s growth.”
