The Harry Miller Corp

Harry Miller Corp. was founded in 1936 by Harry Miller and Charles Haas, two former employees of a local specialty chemical producer. The Pennsylvania corporation was originally called the Haas-Miller Corporation. Manufacturing in the Philadelphia, Pa. area in the thirties was dominated by the textile, leather and paper trades. The company formulated and produced original chemical specialties for these industries and sold principally on the U.S. eastern seaboard.

With the advent of WWII, the environment changed into a hot-bed of steel and metal-working, and the company changed its focus to meet those needs. Simultaneously, sales expanded to include the region east of the Mississippi, with a concentration in the "rust belt" cities of the Midwest.

In 1946, there were significant changes in the company: the two founders parted, the name changed to the "Harry Miller Corporation", and Harry Miller’s son-in-law, John Entwisle, joined the firm. Entwisle joined the company as office manager, learning the trade by traveling with salesmen, and doing stints in the lab and factory. Entwisle became involved with marketing the company’s products, primarily through the use of direct mailings and “Miller Memos” that touted the latest developments. Entwisle ultimately took the helm when founder Harry Miller passed away in October 1967.

As sales grew through direct marketing, the company hired salesmen in the south, northeast and Midwest, in addition to its local sales force. The steel industry in the Midwest was burgeoning, and the company made the decision to enter the pickling inhibitor market that was then dominated by another local company, AmChem. This strategic decision ultimately resulted in vaulting Harry Miller Corp. into the leadership position due to a well-developed products and laboratory expertise in steel pickling additives, and a niche market dominance the company still enjoys today.

Harry Miller Corp’s pickling inhibitors utilized an entirely new chemistry that drastically reduced the steel industry’s cost of pickling as they were lower in cost, and offered better inhibition than the products that had formerly dominated the market. Entwisle was credited with steering the company in new directions, and the results were that the company experienced rapid growth during the sixties and seventies. Harry Miller Corp. was known to make innovative products while operating as an ethical and quality-driven enterprise.

John’s son, Bruce joined the business in 1983 as a salesman in the Cleveland district. After building his territory, he was transferred to Philadelphia to run the recently acquired “Rech Chemical Co.” as General Manager. In addition, he grew the Philadelphia regional sales district into the preeminent territory. In 1989 he was promoted to National Sales Director, holding that position until 1994 when he assumed the President/CEO positions upon John Entwisle’s retirement.

The third generation, under Entwisle’s guidance, moved the company into the international arena, selling its Activol® line of acid inhibitors and Hamico® rinse aids into all corners of the globe through strategic partners and sales agents. Metalworking chemicals were also supplied to such various geographies as China, Singapore, Romania and Tasmania, to name a few.

Entwisle continues the tradition of identifying customer needs and filling them with products designed to improve operating efficiency while lowering costs. Customer satisfaction and product quality are still prime objectives, as signified by customer loyalty, new customer acquisition and the company’s ISO 9001:2015 award status.

What is ISO 9001:2015 and why is it important?
The Standard is an international quality standard for all manufacturing companies. It is important to our clients because it assures them that an accredited quality system is in place that encompasses our entire company. In turn, it assures them that attention to the quality of the product they are receiving from Harry Miller Corp is a top priority within our organization. View Harry Miller Corp's certification.

Who awards this Certification?
The registrar for Harry Miller Corporation's Facility in Philadelphia to ISO 9001:2015 is SAI Global. SAI Global is an international registrar headquartered in Mississauga Ontario. SAI Global is the number one registrar in North America, is ANSI - RAB accredited and is North America's largest management systems registrar with international accreditations.

What does it take to get Certification?
Harry Miller Corporation's Philadelphia manufacturing site was first registered in 2001. Prior to that time, preparation for its attainment was six years. In December 2003, the company re-registered under ISO 9001:2000. The registration is for 3 years, and audits by QMI are performed annually. In 2009, Harry Miller's certification was switched to the new ISO 9001:2008 Standard. Also, in the same year, QMI merged to become SAI Global. In 2017 Harry Miller Corp achieved the quality standard ISO 9001:2015. Certification insures that our manufacturing processes and operating systems comply with the standard for quality and performance.

How do you handle quality assurance for certification?
The members of our Management Review Committee meet two or three times each year to assess and continually improve the Quality Management System. Internal Audits on each element of the Quality Standard are conducted annually. We conduct monthly safety and quality meetings to discuss processes, corrective actions, and improved efficiencies. The members are:

• Nick Ariano, VP and Technical Director
• Tom Shanley, Operations Manager
• Joel Davenport, Production Manager
• Scott Burnside, Packaging and Shipping Manager
• Stephanie Zublick, Senior Development Chemist
• Bruce Entwisle, President

How does certification improve your customer service?
It is a difficult but worthwhile process that improves our operations, reduces off-spec production costs and ensures that materials shipped to customers are quality-checked and meet the customer’s specifications. This quality process has streamlined our processes and has enabled preventive actions rather than post-process corrective actions. In many cases, maintaining this quality registration relieves our customers of the obligation to audit our organization's quality system to meet their own industry requirements.

As I talk with clients and friends, I am asked: ‘Why do customers buy from Harry Miller Corp?’ As you might expect, the answer to this question is the foundation of our company's 80+ years of service and the key to our continued business success. The short answer is that we make quality products. Since that answer is "expected,” let me elaborate.

Harry Miller Corporation creates specialty solutions based on customers' specifications to meet their exact application needs. This may sound simple, unless you study what has happened in our industry over the last decade or so. During this time frame, a few foreign multi-nationals have aggressively purchased multiple small, independent producers and have created huge conglomerates with pared-down product lines. These blended companies are more interested in selling what they have "off the shelf" than they are in meeting customers' individual needs.

The Harry Miller Corporation continues to take the time and give individual attention to each of our customers, to listen to them and either modify an existing product to meet their needs or specially develop an entirely new product sold only for that single application. Rather than pushing our customers into a “pre-fab” mold, we tailor products to fit our customers. Naturally, this keeps our customers happy, meets their needs perfectly, and creates a niche market for our products.

Our dedication to quality is a great source of personal and professional pride, as is our recent ISO 9001:2015 certification. Providing what our customers need through custom solutions for their processes and keeping unquestionably high standards of quality is a philosophy started with founder Harry L. Miller and has remained the cornerstone of our business. Our customers will attest that it is the key to our continued success.