Herman Miller Case

Herman Miller Case

Elevator Pitch: According to Benjamin Franklin “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” This case focuses on both innovation and improvement. I worked for a textile company in India. They were producing carpets, rugs and poufs. They had designers all over the world creating new designs on daily basis. Their main focus was to provide excellent customer service, as there was intense competition. They had to continuously introduce new products and innovate in order to say in the market. They kept on updating their sales process making it more convenient for the customers. Quality and lead-time were also important factors affecting their sales. I think this case relates to the company I worked for. As both of them have few things in common: Innovation, improvement, customer service and lead-time. In today’s era the organizations that understand these factors and act accordingly have competitive edge over their competitors as Herman Miller did.

1. What are the main elements in of Herman Miller’s history, design philosophy, and corporate values? How have they influenced the company’s success?

History: They are a furniture manufacture, began with bedroom furniture during the great depression and then moved to office items. They started off as a family run business.

Design Philosophy: They were highly driven by the ideas of the designers, Innovative New designs, variety, and customization. They had researched customer needs to solve the real world problems.

Corporate Values: The promise of providing the best service, diversity, realizing the contributions of employees, thinking outside the box.

These three elements helped them succeed during the years of their operations and made them the first mover.

2. What led Herman Miller SQA to develop a new business model to serve its market? What is this model and how does it work?

The costs related to operation were high and it was a time consuming process. The competitors entered the market and were able to sell used furniture at a much lower price. The new model was called customer oriented business model. It focused mainly on speed, convenience and reliability for the customers. They developed different tools that helped them in achieving the above stated results.

3. What allowed Miller SQA to reduce a 6-8 week order-to-installation process to an average of 6 days?

The development of many tools over time led to reduction of time and they are Z-axis, SCR order to fulfillment system, ERP system, EnSync, PCM, SupplyNet

4. In what ways is the Miller SQA business model a departure from Herman Miller? In what ways are they