On a ROLL at AMWAY
A new state-of-the-art conveyor system whisks more than
24,000 items through the company’s Michigan DC a day.
When consumer products giant Amway decided to move its Midwest fulfillment operations to a building on its main campus in Ada, Mich.,
managers saw their chance for a clean sweep. From the outset, they rejected the idea of replicating the setup of the
retailer’s former regional facility, located just a few miles
away. Instead, they would use the opportunity to redesign
the fulfillment process and introduce more automation.
What prompted the move was a change in the retailer’s
operations. The old building had been a dual-purpose facility, used for shipping both catalog orders and orders from
Amway’s “Independent Business Owners,” or IBOs—the
local folks nationwide who market Amway products to
their friends and neighbors. But the retailer had recently
shut down the catalog business, making the old process
obsolete. At that point, the company decided it would be
better served by shifting fulfillment to a 600,000-square-
foot facility that had formerly supported manufacturing.
Although the move offered an opportunity to start with a
clean slate, the design team also faced some challenges. One
of the big questions involved the conveyors that would be
used to whisk items through the facility (95 percent of
Amway’s products are conveyable). The company was hop-
ing to improve on the system at the old facility, which had
featured eight miles of conveyor belt. In particular, it was
looking for units that would be quieter and more energy-
efficient than their predecessors. It also wanted models that
would provide better accumulation and gapping.
