Around thirty years ago, grandfather of Gary Heiman, CEO of Standard Textile Co., has a small business with selling bed sheets in Chicago, but Heiman convinced his father to increase standard wholesale operations. On 2006, Standard become a manufacturer and distributor of textile. Standard not only doing research and develop new products but also keeping apace of the global economy.
5 years ago, Heiman opened a new manufacturing facility in China and other Asian countries to take advantage of low labor pay and a booming economic growth. Heiman committed $ 23 million to open Linyi facility (China). He faced the facility problem which is the heat system didn’t not function for two weeks, and the custom machine parts that ordered in China did not fit machine imported from United State. Unshaken by these problems, Heiman make this new venture a success.
Heiman’s adventurousness and hard work seem to be paying off, because the bed sheets manufactured in Linyi are shipped to United States and soon will be sold in China. Standard’s chinese employees are fast learners and becoming highly skilled after just a few weeks of training.
Heiman suggest that textile manufactures need to focus their efforts on R&D while at the same time being step with the global economy. Manufacturing facility in Linyi is the largest investment; he faced many problems along the way as booming China moves from a state-controlled to a market economy. However, he able to overcome all the problems with his slogan which is “I know the potential is simply awesome”.