Shawn Miles has had the opportunity work in two very different Honda markets: Auto and Power Equipment.
“In 2021, I was hired as the IT manager responsible for production line support, mentoring, training, morale, desk-side support, and rolling it all up and reporting to senior management,” he said.
Miles has been a Honda associate since 2021, but he was involved with Honda long before that, working for a company that provided logistics services for North Carolina Mfg. (NCM) starting in 2008. He became a contractor at NCM in 2019 before taking a management position in IT as a full-time associate.
It’s a role Miles said was perfect for him at this stage of his career.
“The role I filled when I started was tailor-made for me,” he said. “I have the practical real-world experience. What intrigued me was the team-building. At this point in my career, my heart is for people, and being able to bring a team with different personalities and skills together is one of my strong suits. Maintaining that work-life balance is a hallmark of a productive business relationship. I feel like Honda has invested in my skill set and has given me the latitude to be the best version on myself.”
In December 2022, Miles got a chance to move from NCM to Transmission Manufacturing Plant-Georgia (TMP-G) Manufacturing System Operations Department – a similar role that he couldn’t turn down.
“I’m a computer nerd,” he said. “If I wasn’t getting paid for it, I’d do it for free. I love anything to do with computers and software.”
While computers and software are similar, Miles did see changes moving from power products to autos, especially in the scale of operations.
“I came from a plant that had 14 production lines to one,” he said. “The products are totally different. There are very few people driven processes at TMP-G. At NCM, every process is manual. On any day, IT may touch 200 different process points. Now, the complexity is the same; it’s just spread over more space. It’s great to see something different and recognize my skill set transfers successfully to another line of business.”
Even though he works in Georgia during the week, he and his wife, Marlan, go back to North Carolina each weekend. Responsibilities include leading a church he established in a space that formerly housed his grandfather’s furniture shop tie him to his North Carolina home.
Shawn Miles and his wife, Marlan, love all things Disney.
“My other job is as a pastor,” he said. “My church won’t be moving, so I’ve been going back and forth since December. But my wife is with me, and I couldn’t do it without her.”
While pastoral duties keep him busy, Miles finds time to engage in other interests, including computers, music and reading. Miles and his wife also love to travel.
“We love to vacation, go on cruises and travel,” he said. “Our favorite spot, hands down, is Disney. My wife is a Disney fanatic and was probably Minnie Mouse in a different life. We’ve been to both Disney World and Disneyland, and we love it. It just makes us happy.”
And that happiness transfers to work, where he enjoys working on computers each day and helping Honda make great products.
