Amway is a 52-year-old company, headquartered in Ada, Michigan, with more than 14,000 global employees in more than 80 countries and territories, and 3 million distributors worldwide.
Quality and service keep demand high for the company’s 450 products designed for nutrition, beauty, personal care and home care. As a good business practice and to safeguard consumers, Amway conducts routine microbiological screening of its products. Like many companies, Amway was following traditional methods that date back more than 100 years.
The Issue with Old Testing Methods—the Waiting
Product samples were mixed with growth media and incubated for several days, then monitored regularly to see if colonies of bacteria, yeast or mould had formed. “Microbiology testing tends to be lengthy,” says Steve Allard, senior group leader, Quality Services and Microbiology at Amway. “We needed to incubate samples for three to five days, so we were holding up products while waiting for test results.”
The lab’s problems were magnified whenever one of the autoclave units went down for maintenance. Traditional methods generate a significant amount of material that must be disposed of or decontaminated.
At the same time, Amway’s Sustainability Program Manager, Rick Van Dellen, is in the midst of leading a company-wide initiative. “Like many progressive companies, Amway wants to reduce risk and waste, including the waste coming out of the laboratory,” he explained. “We have a recycling goal of 95%, but it’s hard to figure out how to recycle waste from a microbiology lab.”
Problem Solved with Implementation of a Rapid Product Release Screening Test
Amway wanted to reduce production time by getting microbial test results faster. They purchased a Celsis Rapid Detection system and has been relying on it increasingly over the past two years.
“With the Celsis system, we were able to bring that three-to-five days of delay down to about a day,” said Allard. “We save at least two days of cycle time on each test.”
There were additional, unforeseen results from implementing the technology: increased lab efficiency and environmental benefits. At Amway, the task of media preparation was extensive. Quality control procedures were lengthy. “After that,” said Allard, “there’s a significant amount of material you have to decontaminate with traditional methods. Celsis has improved our processes on all those fronts, and reduced the amount of waste.”
“Having less lab waste to recycle is a big savings,” confirmed Rick Van Dellen. “It also reduces costs on our janitorial side. They don’t have to manage as much waste.” Van Dellen’s seen the environmental benefits of the Celsis system in other areas of the lab as well.
There’s the ongoing issue of the autoclave. “We were down an autoclave for a while, and having Celsis was a big help,” he said. “We use less electricity, less steam. Our water needs are reduced.”
Would Allard and Van Dellen recommend the Celsis system? “You always have to consider the regulatory environment,” advises Allard. “That’s where we had a lot of confidence in Celsis. The technology has been out there and Celsis has done a great job
improving the technology over the past few years.
“From a supply chain optimisation standpoint, reducing cycle time and increasing efficiency in the lab are both very important for us,” said Allard. “The Celsis system has certainly done that. We’ve seen the results.”
Van Dellen adds, “The environmental savings have been a great benefit, and one that exceeded our expectations.”
“An unforeseen benefit,” agrees Allard
