Logistics

  • The ‘Dentibox’ consists of two parts, a product part and a service part. First, we put a lot of thought into the service part. We thought a lot about what the service should fulfill and what it will provide for the user. Also, whether the service will cooperate with insurance or other companies in the same branch or if it should be a stand-alone service. 
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Cooperation

  • The ‘Dentibox’ will work together with the brand Oral-B (among other brands). Oral-B will provide the ‘Dentibox’ of an electric toothbrush, brush-heads, and toothpaste.
  • Why an electric toothbrush? This is because most people in the Netherlands use Oral-B toothbrushes. Because Oral-B is considered to be the best electric toothbrush on the market now and the most popular. Everyone already uses these toothbrushes, so replacing them while they still work makes no sense. In the package, it should be an option to add the electric toothbrush. We are not going to produce these toothbrushes ourselves but work together with Oral-B. Producing this ourselves and all the research for it would be a waste of time and effort.
  • Brush-heads need to be changed every 3 months, advises Oral-B themselves. A collaboration with Oral-B that provides the brush-heads for the customers who use Oral-B. Oral-B provides the electric toothbrush almost every brand has its own technique with attaching the brush on the toothbrush. That is why Oral-B will also provide the brush-heads. The customers who do not use Oral-B will be a small group who just get advice on what kind of brush-head to use. We will not produce these ourselves.
  • There are a lot of techniques behind making the different types of toothpaste. For that, we also use cooperation with a company. Because we already cooperate with Oral-B it will be the cheapest way that they also provide us with toothpaste. Oral-B has a big variety of different types of toothpaste.
  • The remainder of the interdental cleaners will be produced by ourselves. It will be produced abroad to keep the labor and production costs low.
  • By collaborating with other companies we will be appealing to these brands as it is a good way to promote them as well.
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  • But Oral-B will likely not be the only brand we will cooperate with. Our PSS will also create the opportunity for other brands to make their name more known. This is beneficial for the companies that would like to promote their company through us, as they will gain more publicity. Yet, at the same time, this will be beneficial to us as the products are offered at a lower price to us, or maybe even against payment. This again, reduces the costs for us. Do note that the products should be meeting the excellent quality of products we aim for. 

 

Amount

  • The measurements, package containment were found on bol.com and amazon the average has been taken. How often the products are used is found on websites of big brands and the average is taken for example toothbrush head is found at website of Oral-B, internet dental brushes is found on the website of Tepe.

  • Storage

  • In 2020, 79% of the Dutch population are visiting the dentist, says “Staat van Mondzorg”. The Dutch population now counts 17.5 million people. So, 17.5 x 0,79 = 13.8 million Dutch people are going to the dentist. For this product-service system, we made a survey for how many people would like to have a subscription on the ‘DentiBox’. The percentage is 19.6 % and 37 % are doubtful, as the results aren’t that reliable. We will come back to this later. We will take around 19.6 + 37 x 0,5 = 40 %, so there will be around 7 million people who will get to know our PSS. For the calculations, we took one percent of the 7 million people because it is unlikely that all those who get to know our PSS, will actually subscribe. Do note that this is a rough estimation, estimated from a not that reflective survey.
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  • The interdental cleansers are produced in China. These products need to be stored somewhere in China before shipping to the Netherlands. So also, there needs to be a warehouse in China to be rented. All the products that are made in China will also be packed together in China. After production, the products need to be brought to the Netherlands. The cheapest way is to ship the products by boat. The best place is to rent a warehouse near the port. If we do decide to use products from other brands that want to promote themselves, we might not even need to produce the products ourselves.
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  • In the warehouse in the Netherlands Oral-B is added to the package since they are not produced in China. Then the packages are sent to the clients, and won’t stay long in the warehouse in the Netherlands. Therefore,  there needs to be a rather small warehouse in the Netherlands.

 

Sales

  • Offering promotions will probably help us to become more attractive to the clients. It will also increase the number of new clients at the beginning of our business when it is not well known yet. For example, the promotions could be to give a discount on the ‘Oral-B’ toothbrush or to give a discount on the first quartile or package discount. In this way, the business will attract a lot of new people who could be interested.
  • Also, a good way is a lot of advertisements through the internet to grow a name and knowledge of existence among the possible customers. One of the most important advertising is of course at the dentists themselves. The dentist should offer the subscription to the customers themselves as standard. This way we get an expert recommendation which clients are eager to follow. This makes spending a lot of money on online advertisements unnecessary. We can’t assume that every person that goes to the dentist also will take a subscription.  So online advertising is necessary. What many customers will probably also do is bring a brochure and think about it, because people go to the dentist about 3.1 times a year on average, it is very useful that they are informed in advance of its existence. So, they can think about it beforehand and then take a subscription. Another way of advertisement would be brands we collaborate with, it would be a mutual benefit for both. We promote their products, and they promote our service. As our service would get more known, we will probably get more subscriptions, at the same time, they can supply us with more products and also get more publicity via us. 
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Preperation

  • It is very important to have good preparation. We must ensure that there is always enough stock available. So that an extra package can be sent to the new customer at any time. In the beginning, it is still a bit difficult to estimate how much we should have in stock. It may be that it runs out very quickly or the market stays small and that it takes time. To be able to estimate this, we had a survey go around and looked at how many people would take a subscription. Do note that for more realistic results, this survey should of course be administered to more people from different target groups. Most people are students who filled the survey which can influence the result. Since students often don’t have much money and think that such a subscription must cost them a lot of money, we expect that the real percentage of people who would want a subscription is higher.
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  • Furthermore, the production and shipping time must be taken into account. Delivery from China to the Netherlands takes approximately 40 days. The delivery with collaborations of ‘Oral-B’ also has different delivery times that have to be considered.

IDEFØ

  • This method is a designed model with the decisions, actions, and activities of this service. IDEFØ is produced to get a clear overview of the activities and processes that are necessary for this service. Also, this model is used to analyze the system, improve it, and summarise the logistics.