Derrick Miller, senior manager of sales for The Raymond Corporation, a brand of Toyota Material Handling North America, was named a recipient in the Leaders in Excellence category for this year’s Pros to Know Award, presented by Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
Miller leads the sales strategy for the company’s technology portfolio, including advanced telematics, operator assistance technology, and automation solutions, where he is responsible for driving growth in revenue and market, turning intelligent warehouse innovation into measurable business results and working directly with dealers and senior stakeholders to diagnose operational challenges, design integrated technology and guide complex product deployments.
Internally, Miller is a unifying force across sales, product and engineering. His customer success stories translate real-world needs into action while elevating solution-selling capabilities across the channel through mentorship, enablement and hands-on leadership.
For instance, through his work on Raymond’s iWAREHOUSE fleet management system, he has shaped the analytics-driven solution to continuously improve and optimize labor, space and productivity.
Within the last 12 months, Miller has led multiple initiatives, such as scaling intelligent warehouse deployments through integrated intralogistics solutions, advancing data-driven labor optimization, and elevating dealer enablement and solution-selling capabilities.
Drawing from his background in product management, Miller has guided customers through the deployment of solutions that combine telematics, labor management systems and lift truck fleets, which have provided customers across multiple sites with a unified view of improved throughput, workflow, and equipment performance and fulfillment.
Miller sits down with Marina Mayer, editor-in-chief of Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive and co-founder of the Women in Supply Chain Forum™, to talk about AI, telematics, automation and scaling intelligent warehouse deployments.
Supply & Demand Chain Executive: Let’s first talk about you. Tell me a little bit about yourself and your journey to get to this current stage in your career?
Derrick Miller: My career has been focused on helping organizations improve the way their operations run. Prior to my current role, I started my career within military operations leadership roles and then transitioned to the software technology space with a focus on labor analytics. Today, I serve as senior manager of sales for technology for The Raymond Corporation, where I lead strategy and growth for our portfolio of solutions, including telematics, operator assist technologies and automation. Much of my work involves partnering with our solutions and support centers and our national account customers to understand their operational challenges and design integrated technologies that deliver measurable improvements in productivity, visibility and labor optimization.
Along the way, I have had the opportunity to collaborate closely with teams across sales, engineering and product development, which has helped shape my perspective on how data, equipment and software can work together to improve intralogistics. What keeps me engaged in this industry is the ever-evolving innovation of solutions and the opportunity to help customers solve real challenges.
Supply & Demand Chain Executive: One of the things outlined in your submission is how you played a key role in shaping Raymond’s iWAREHOUSE fleet management system. Tell us more about this solution, what it is and why it’s necessary.
Miller: Raymond’s iWAREHOUSE Telematics fleet management system is a telematics platform designed to give warehouse operators real-time visibility into how their lift truck fleets, labor and facilities are performing. The system collects data directly from connected trucks and equipment to help organizations monitor utilization, track impacts, manage access and better understand how work is actually moving through their operations.
What makes a solution like iWAREHOUSE necessary today is the level of complexity warehouses are facing. Labor constraints, rising throughput demands and increasing pressures mean operators cannot rely on assumptions about productivity. Operators need accurate and actionable data. By capturing and analyzing equipment data to generate measurable insights, iWAREHOUSE helps organizations identify inefficiencies and make more-informed decisions about fleet size, workflow and overall warehouse performance. Over time, these insights allow companies to move from simply reacting to operational issues to proactively optimizing their operations, which is becoming increasingly important as supply chains continue to evolve and automation adoption grows. As the industry continues to develop, it is important for telematics to scale accordingly to create a more interconnected ecosystem in the warehouse.
Supply & Demand Chain Executive: Within the last 12 months, you’ve led multiple initiatives, such as scaling intelligent warehouse deployments through integrated intralogistics solutions, advancing data-driven labor optimization, and elevating dealer enablement and solution-selling capabilities. Walk us through what this all entails, and why automation and analytics are crucial.
Miller: Over the past year, much of my focus has been on helping organizations move beyond isolated technologies and toward more-integrated intralogistics solutions. That means bringing together lift trucks, telematics, labor management systems and operator assist technologies, so customers can see how their entire operation is performing rather than looking at individual pieces. By connecting these systems, warehouses gain a unified view of throughput, workflow and equipment performance across their facilities, cultivating synergy.
Automation and analytics play a critical role in that process. Many operations are dealing with rising order volumes, labor shortages and increasing expectations for speed and accuracy. Data-driven insights help leaders understand where time is being lost, how equipment is being utilized and where process improvements can deliver the biggest impact. Automation can then be applied more strategically, addressing the right bottlenecks and supporting employees rather than simply adding technology for its own sake.
Supply & Demand Chain Executive: From telematics and AI to optimization and automation, what do you see as the Top 3 trends impacting the supply chain space and why?
Miller: Three trends currently having a significant impact on supply chain operations today are, first, the growing role of data-driven visibility. Telematics and connected equipment are giving organizations much clearer insight into how their warehouses actually operate. Instead of relying on assumptions, leaders can analyze utilization, patterns and workflows to identify challenges and make better decisions about facility layouts and productivity.
Second, the strategic adoption of automation. Companies are increasingly looking at automation not as a stand-alone investment, but as part of a broader intralogistics strategy. The most successful deployments integrate automated solutions alongside manual equipment, software and operator assist technologies. This approach allows organizations to target the right processes and scale automation in a way that supports optimization and productivity.
Third, the use of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to drive optimization. As warehouses generate more operational data, AI-powered tools are helping organizations interpret that information faster and identify patterns that would be difficult to detect. These insights can support predictive maintenance, workflow optimization and smarter decision making.
Supply & Demand Chain Executive: The Leaders in Excellence category honors company leaders who’ve made outstanding contributions to the supply chain space. What advice do you have for other professionals entering in the supply chain space?
Miller: For professionals entering the supply chain space, my biggest advice is to stay curious and focus on understanding how operations actually work. It’s also important to embrace data and technology as core parts of the industry. Tools like telematics and automation are transforming how organizations make decisions. Developing an understanding of how these technologies support operations will be increasingly valuable as the supply chain space continues to evolve.
Supply & Demand Chain Executive: What are some things not addressed above that would be pertinent to include in the discussion detailing your strengths, achievements, overall goals, etc.?
Miller: One area that’s especially important to me is helping organizations build a strong foundation before they pursue more advanced automation. There’s a lot of excitement around robotics and autonomous systems, but the most successful operations first establish visibility into their processes and equipment. When companies have reliable data and clearly defined workflows, they’re in a much stronger position to scale new technologies effectively.
Another focus of mine is collaboration across the broader supply chain ecosystem. Solving today’s operational challenges requires close alignment between technology providers, our solutions and support centers and extending to our customers operating these facilities every day. Looking ahead, my goal is to continue contributing to industry conversations around data-driven optimization and the disciplined path to automation. As the supply chain space continues to evolve, helping leaders understand how to combine technology and analytics will be critical to building smarter, more-adaptable warehouse environments.
