The Align Technology

Issues related to case:

The Align Technology is facing many problems like not obtaining profitability, demand of Align Technology product is less than its manufacturing capacity, the cost of the company is greater than its price, Align restricted use of system to the individuals with mature dentition and used only by the individuals with mild malocclusions and technology not accepted by the orthodontists (slow rate of technology adaptation). The core problem is matching the capacity with the aggressive sales forecast.

Reasons:

The company restriction policy and not gave training to the general practice dentists is the reason of less demand. The orthodontists do not readily accept the new technology and there is slow rate of adaptation of new technology is the reason why the patients do not use new technology and the demand of new technology is less.

Analysis of the issues:        

The company was far from profit as its net loss in 2000 was $31472 and which increased in 2001 as $54252 and the reason behind was that the technology which they were used was not accepted as treatment by orthodontists. The company demand is less than the manufacturing capacity because the company give training to the orthodontists and orthodontists don’t communicate the new technology features and benefits with the patients because they do not accept new technology and there adaptation rate of new technology is slow. They prefer traditional metal braces for the treatment. The company impose restriction on the mature dentition and the product can only be used by the individuals having mild malocclusions  is the reason of demand of Align product is less than the manufacturing capacity.

There were lots of disadvantages of using old method of teeth treatment as compare to Invisalign system. The first was using arch wires and brackets fixed into the teeth which look very awkward as compare to Invisalign system because it is indivisible. The second problem was chair time which was also reduced by new method and the overall treatment time was less as compare to traditional method. One problem was eating while taking arch braces which was also solved by new system by removing the aligner during meal and tooth care procedure. In traditional method patients were facing oral discomfort during treatment as compared to Invisalign system.

There were also some drawbacks of this system and it was not less costly as compare to old. New system is premium as compare to old, the Invisalign system is very complicated and time consuming (exhibit 1) and effectiveness was only depends on patient compliance. By seeing all the comparison now it depends on customer which method to adopt but the benefits of new method are more than old. If company show all these benefits to the customers then their demand of using this new technology can be increased which will lead them to fulfill their production capacity.