Amway-Be Competitive Or Close Down

Amway

Ada, Michigan.

Amway—the little business that could—went from a basement office in 1959 to an estimated $5 billion in retail sales 40 years later. But to long-term employees like Mike King, director of paper products, Amway's success is no accident; it's a manifestation of the pure entrepreneurial spirit of Amway's two creators, Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel.

"In the beginning, everybody thought they were nutso," says King, with a chuckle. "They would drive somewhere to meet 150 people for a demonstration and three people would show up, but they were committed to their idea and they stuck with it."

DeVos and Van Andel worked tirelessly to build a fully integrated direct sales business powered by the "can do" spirit of its employees. Their commitment and enthusiasm rubbed off on King, who was working his way through college as a third shift skid loader at Amway, and he decided to make the company his home.

Taking his cue from DeVos and Van Andel, King's direct and opinionated style has helped him successfully lead one of the largest in-plants in America. Amway's two-, four- and six-color presses specialize in printing multi-color publications such as catalogs, magazines, brochures and freestanding literature. The operation also produces nearly 16 million corrugated cardboard cartons a year to support Amway's broad range of cosmetics, cleaners and personal care products, making it one of the few U.S. in-plants to delve into this kind of work.

However, one of King's most controversial opinions is that he doesn't feel his shop is an in-plant.

For King, the term "in-plant" connotes a noncompetitive service stuck in a basement, printing letterhead and invitations, not a state-of-the-art plant printing over 200 million impressions a year for its parent company, as well as customers like K-Mart and General Motors. And even though his operation prints over 95 percent of Amway's materials, King sticks fast to his opinion.

"I don't view this as an in-plant, I view this as a commercial printer whose largest customer happens to be Amway," explains King. "I think one of the mistakes that in-plants make is that they start thinking that they're the tail that wags the dog."

The key to staying competitive, says King, is to run your in-plant competitively like a commercial printer and focus on improving every aspect of customer service. If you don't, he adds, you're making yourself vulnerable to a facilities management takeover.

"Oh, sure. That happens all the time," says King. "I think any guy that's in this type of situation and doesn't run his place as a commercial printer should be challenged."

For King, the in-plant equation is simple:

"You've got to have customers and you've got to have revenue. It's pretty basic: I'm going to bring value to the company or I'm not."

by Allan Martin Kemler

Key Equipment:

• Scitex Dolev 800V imagesetter

• Iris digital proofing system

• DuPont Waterproof analog color proofing system

• Two four-color MAN-Miehle 36˝ presses

• Two-color MAN-Miehle 36˝ press

• Six-color Heidelberg M-600 heatset press

• Four-color Harris M-1000 with UV coater

• Two-color Ryobi 17˝ press