Herman Miller Case Summary

Summary

Herman Miller is a leader in office furniture supplier who is famous for environmental friendly. For the purpose of environmental sustainability, their Design for Environment team decided to implement the cradle-to-cradle (C2C) design protocol for its mid-level office chair, Mirra.

The case discusses the details of how Herman Miller implemented C2C during the design of the Mirra chair and the impact of the new protocol on their internal processes: design decisions, manufacturing, and supply chain management. Whether to replace the PVC material of the Mirra chair was their biggest problem, because PVC was a highly toxic material to manufacture and dispose process which violated the C2C protocol. Meantime, the company faced the problem with suppliers for substitute materials and logistical problem in the recycling process. To switch to thermoplastic urethane (TPU), a more environmentally friendly material, for the Mirra Chair arm pad required at least modification of a production tool, or possibly a completely new tool. In addition, the cost of TPU was higher than PVC. There was also uncertainty about how consistent the quality of the arm pad would be with TPU.

Strength:

1. Strong brand recognition. Founded in 1905, famous for office furniture design.

2. Organizational culture.

3. Employee engagement and loyalty.

4.  R&D, innovation.

5. Environment friendly and sustainability. Known as a environmental leader in the industry.

6. HMPS( Herman Miller Production System) based on Lean Manufacturing.

7. High quality product.

8. Global markets with strong purchasing power customers

Weaknesses:

1. Financial problem due to the global recession.

2. Cutting benefit and lay off employees

3. High costs to set up the DfE material database

4. Difficult to find suppliers for cooperation of new C2C.

5. Logistical problems for recycling the products.

6. Facing the high cost of replacing PVC and paying...