Matt Long & John Miller, Herman Miller

Matt Long, vice-president of continuous improvement and John Miller, engineering manager at Herman Miller, offer up lessons learned during their journey toward their version of Lean, the Herman Miller Performance System (HMPS) during this episode. Herman Miller is a 108-year-old furniture and home furnishings manufacturer based in Zeeland, Michigan that garners more than $2 billion-a-year in earnings. Revered not only for its iconic designs, as evidenced by the company’s Eames Lounge Chair, but also for its culture, Matt and John are visiting Ohio State to communicate best practices in lean manufacturing. For eight years, Matt has served as VP of continuous improvement with the responsibility of global implementation of the business processes, supply chain and dealer management; he directed the program for 14 years prior to that. Prior to that, he held manufacturing and tooling engineering management positions at the company. He also worked in manufacturing and systems engineering positions at Lift Tech International, Kaydon Corporation and McDonnell Douglas Aircraft. John has been an engineering manager at Herman Miller for almost 20 years. He specializes in lean product development, failure mode and effects analysis and lean Manufacturing. Both Matt and John are engineering alums of Lawrence Technological University.