Service Is Not Just A Game To Merit Entertainment
Electronics
By Staci Davidson   
Tuesday, 01 May 2007
smc Merit Entertainment is dedicated to innovation and advanced technology, as well as a belief that “customers always come first.”
Merit Entertainment is dedicated to innovation and advanced technology, as well as a belief that “customers always come first.”
One of Merit Entertainment’s main strengths, it says, is that its products appear globally in a wide range of venues and appeal to “an almost limitless demographic.” While this would be good for almost any company, Merit has become a leader in its industry by backing up its presence with innovation and leading technology.

With a philosophy that “customers always come first,” Merit Entertainment manufactures, engineers and markets touchscreen entertainment devices. In 1981, Merit introduced “Pit Boss”, the first multi-game countertop machine, which established the countertop niche in the coin-op market. Since then, the company has continually introduced a variety of amusement and trivia games, features and applications, which aim to increase profits for its customers.

Merit’s business is boosted by its sister company, Rowe Entertainment, which is the No. 1 manufacturer of commercial and home jukeboxes, says President and CEO Michael Maas.

Recently, Manufacturing Today spoke with Maas about Merit’s operations and how it is focused on serving customers to ensure growth.
Manufacturing Today: What has allowed Merit Entertainment to maintain its leadership position in the industry?
Michael Maas: I believe it is a number of things. For one, the coin-op market is a very product-centric business, and we regularly introduce new products to the market. In fact, in the past four months we launched a new countertop touch-screen game called Aurora and a new wall-jukebox unit from Rowe. We try to introduce something new every 12 to 18 months and we are doing very well with that so far.

We also focus a lot on our customers, which boosts our place in the market. Last year we developed the “Merit Customer Promise,” which contains four guiding principles. We promise to always focus on customer needs, deliver high quality, offer the best products and improve the customers’ total return on investment. To us, the “best products” are defined by how much our customers are earning in the coin-operated business.

MT: What does your development process involve?
MM: We have a number of standard processes we use for the hardware, software and content of our games. However, we also work closely with our hardware and systems software teams to develop the best products, as well as the content providers. In the jukebox market, the content provider is the music labels; we currently have 400,000 songs available for our products. In gaming, most of the content is created by us. We produce an average of 12 new games each year.

We have a development process for each element of our products. That involves a combination of creativity – what could we bring to the market – and what our customers need from us. In the last couple of years, we have involved our customers in the early stages of the design process, which has been great.

MT: How do you ensure quality throughout production?
MM: We recently consolidated our two manufacturing facilities by closing our plant in Salem, Pa., and moving those operations to the Rowe location in Grand Rapids, Mich. Rowe has a history of producing quality for almost 100 years, so that is why we chose to move everything there. We use simple manufacturing processes, but they are constantly being refined by our talented group of people.

Our people are definitely a big part of our quality. We are a union shop, but even so, the average tenure here is 27 years. We rely a lot on them to maintain our quality and strong operations. We treat them well and they really feel like a part of the family.

MT: You recently became the CEO of Merit. What are your future plans for the company?
MM: The strategic goals of the company are very straightforward. We want to continue doing what we’re doing and be the best that we can be.

Both Merit and Rowe are hungry and focused, so we are in a fantastic environment to succeed. We are adding jobs in Michigan – which can not be said for most other manufacturers – and working to drive the cost of our products down and the quality up.

We also need to exploit our assets beyond countertop bar games and digital jukeboxes without diminishing our focus on our existing customers.

There is a lot of seniority in the coin-op industry, and I am a newcomer. Even so, I’ve had a fantastic reception and am extremely grateful to the industry and our customers for being so great to work with. Both the industry and our customers will be important partners in achieving our goals.
 
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