By Nathan Peck | MiBiz
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ALLENDALE — A West Michigan furniture manufacturer is seeing opportunities among the smallest customers in the office furniture market.

Amneon Furniture, a manufacturer of cubicle and office interiors, has targeted a market segment often overlooked by the dominant players in the contract office furniture market: the small office user. Through a reliance on lean practices and technology, the furniture maker has found a means to produce a U.S.-sourced product with a high level of service to a market segment that has been hard to reach.

A group of former Miller SQA employees purchased the company in 2008, taking a supplier to OEMs and turning it into one itself. Amneon president Reggie Vanden Bosch, along with partners Doug Bonzelaar and Jim Von Ins, looked to areas in the marketplace that weren’t being served. By finding efficiencies in the ordering and manufacturing process, the trio found open market space — the small offices that aren’t looking to drop $500,000 on an office suite, but rather are looking for functional, well-made products to get their businesses up and running.

“The way we go to market dictates very short lead times. It doesn’t allow us to be offshore, and it is not beneficial to us,” Vanden Bosch said. “Someone like Herman Miller is great if you want to make a statement. Our customers are small offices, (but) as much work is involved in a small order as a large. A smaller volume … in many ways is a tough sell for the rest of the industry.”

Technology plays into the company’s strategy as it has developed proprietary software, SeeChange, that allows sales staff to lay out an office in 3D for a customer, then automatically turn in a bill of sale, direct orders to the shop, a list of materials suppliers, and finally drawings for the installation crew.

“This allows us to save on the back-and-forth. Rather than going back and forth with a customer five or six times, this reduces it to two 30-minutes sessions,” Vanden Bosch said. “At the same time, you can reduce a lot of the back and forth on price when you can price it out in real time.”

The styling is functional with a limited number of options and finishes — ideal for a physician’s office, or small firm, said Bonzelaar. “After the last couple of years, people are not necessarily attracted to the flashy design.” Customers, he said, are more drawn to receiving a level of service usually reserved for larger customers of the largest players in the industry.

Working this lean is difficult and risky without a strong, reliable supplier base, since there is no finished inventory, only orders waiting to be shipped out. Amneon leans heavily on its supplier base, knowing that a hiccup in any step of the process can mean a late delivery and a ding to their reputation. The company is not looking to be vertically integrated, but rather work with smaller, lean suppliers who buy into the just-in-time model.

“All you need is one step of the process not communicating and it doesn’t work. The dealer doesn’t have the time to go back and forth on drawings before they’re upside down on the transaction,” Vanden Bosch said. “We pick suppliers who see things the same way we do. We’re not going to beat them up on price. We’ll work with them to get both our costs down. We want an extremely positive relationship. If they win, we win.”

Amneon is adding capacity in their plant, and now employs 35 people, requiring extensive cross-training of employees. As a build-to-order manufacturer, orders can fluctuate wildly from day to day, so it is imperative that employees can move from laminating desktops one day to upholstering cubicle panels the next.

As the company hits its stride, Vanden Bosch expects strong growth in 2011.

“We strive not to be the lowest price, but the best value for our customers,” explained Vanden Bosch. “Once we get a customer, we never lose them. They’ve seen the light, they never want to do it any other way.”