Volkema took a modest office, customized it only by adding Herman Miller's popular Aeron chair, and pulled together a team of a dozen executives to come up with a plan.

FORBES: HERMAN MILLER Furnishing The Future

Other retailers are embracing simplicity, too: Office furniture maker Herman Miller has actively reduced the variations on its iconic Aeron chair.

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For example, office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller discovered that it was giving consumers so many choices for customizing its popular Aeron chair that it had to be prepared to produce over four million variations on the basic model even though only a few thousand configurations were actually being ordered.

FORBES: Simplicity Sells