The MES Success Story: An one employee company to a global corporation in 7 countries
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In a growing suburb of Columbus, Ohio sits the unassuming the headquarters of a multimillion-dollar global enterprise known as MES, Inc. MES, which stands for Metrics Engineered Supply Chains, was founded in 2007 by a graduate-level Engineer Turned-sales representative, Hiten Shah.
Despite having little to no experience in global supply chain management, Shah had the gumption, drive, and ideas to leave his stable job, set up a home office, and launch his one-person operation. Under Shah’s leadership, MES has achieved renown as an innovative leader in global supply chain. Today, MES is a worldwide operation with offices in the U.S., Mexico, Poland, India, and China, and partners and suppliers around the world.
From Graduate School to Solo Entrepreneur to Global Powerhouse
After completing his postgraduate work in plastics engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Shah relocated to Medina, Ohio for a career as a plastics engineer. Two years later, he moved to Columbus, working for a small company, helping him better comprehend the different facets of business. Then, in 2006 while visiting India, he met up with acquaintance who asked him to take a look into sourcing die castings, iron castings, and metal castings.
By the time Shah returned with his findings, the acquaintance had gone to China. What could’ve been a crushing blow and a waste of time turned out to be the catalyst Shah needed to change his career trajectory.
“At this point, I didn’t just want to buy parts,” says Shah. “I wanted to have a warehouse and ship just in time, so I thought, ‘How hard can it be?’”
So, in 2008, Shah made a trip to China to meet suppliers, start a supply chain, and bring back a couple of containers with $100,000 worth of goods for his first warehouse. Today, MES has thousands of square-feet of warehouse space with facilities in Mexico, Europe, and Ohio.
MES’s Global Supply Chains
MES is a full-service provider of supply chain management and manufacturing services across the globe. The company helps customers find ideal overseas manufacturing sources for their products, working with highly qualified, ISO-certified suppliers in Mexico, Vietnam, Taiwan, China, and India.
The company also oversees the delivery of these parts to their destination, managing all the steps in the supply chain process, including tariffs, shipping documentation, compliance, finishing, and assembly—and all delivered on time. It also provides value-added services, including sourcing, quality management, global logistics, domestic operations, and inventory management.
The MES team is comprised of a myriad of experts across the disciplines, including supply chain, quality, and sourcing, as well as Six Sigma engineers who ensure that any work under the MES name is produced in accordance with the company’s—and its customers’—high standards.
What’s more, MES operates under a simple philosophy: Craft win-win solutions for customers, foster an exciting and challenging work environment, and develop a network of the best suppliers in the world.
MES serves a wide range of customers, including those in the industrial, medical, lighting, e-mobility, electrical and power, transportation, construction, and agriculture sectors. In addition, MES is known for creating innovative strategies that meet the unique demands of each industry and every customer.
Leading the Way
At the heart of the company, of course, is Hiten Shah, a man who’s always up for a challenge.
From acquisitions to expansions to diversification, Shah is both comfortable and capable being at the helm.
“The types of assignments that often land on my desk,” he explains, “range from managing new challenges such as rising tariffs to dealing with the impact of catastrophic events like a global pandemic and supply chain disruptions. Our teams look to me as to how we’ll approach new opportunities and overcome obstacles.”
No matter the challenge, Shah always reminds his teams of both the company’s past successes and failures. While focusing on failures might seem an unusual leadership strategy, it makes perfect sense to Shah.
“This helps us create a safe space for open discussion regarding our strengths and flaws,” he says. “Alignment doesn’t happen overnight. Even minor setbacks can disrupt it, which means it requires time and effort to rebuild. As individuals and an organization, we always keep a learn-and-grow-from-it mindset.”
Shah explains that the company maintains alignment using a five-step metrics management system, which includes annual planning sessions, bimonthly reviews, monthly metrics meetings, weekly blitzes, and daily huddles. MES also introduced audit initiatives and comprehensive training in 2024 as part of its company goals for managerial evaluations.
“We aim to delve deeper into the company, identifying and addressing gaps to create lasting solutions and alignment as we continue to grow,” says Shah.
MES Core Values
As a values-driven organization, MES is committed to showing respect for others, communicating effectively, and having pride of ownership for the work. As a result, every office, every partner, every supplier, and every customer benefits. To ensure that these values remain embedded in the organizational DNA, the staff routinely discusses and quizzes each other on its eight core values.
Another thing that helps MES stand out in the market is that the company offers customers a vast range of value-added services with assurance that the deadlines will be met and on-time project deliveries will take place according to customer specifications. From parts sampling to best-in-class supply chain services to 3D printing, MES is dedicated to providing services with results that exceed the highest of expectations.
Flawless Supply Chain Management
The company has a process for delivering flawless supply chain management to its customers. This process includes finding the right supplier, then conducting quality audits of supplier operations to make sure they’re aligned with what MES and its customers expect. As the product develops, MES engineers are on hand to oversee the initial trials.
MES handles logistics, too, ensuring that supply is not more four to six hours away from any supplier so as to help reduce costs for the customer. MES oversees other manufacturing aspects, such as plating, powder coating, and all of the secondary operations. Plus, the company can handle any necessary machining themselves, as well as do plastic and returnable packs.
Finally, the company’s warehouses are generally within a day’s supply of most customers.
“There’s a string of different things that lead to our value proposition, which is providing just in time for our customers,” says Shah.
A Vision for Growth
Shah predicts that the future of MES will be more incredible than its amazing past.
“At MES, we take a long-term perspective while setting near-term goals. Our next goal is to double within four years and, ultimately, become a billion-dollar company.”
It would seem that MES is on track to do just that, by focusing on becoming even better at what they do and continuing to ensure flawless execution.
“Our growth is only limited by our ability to execute well,” explains Shah. “If we perform well for our customers, we will automatically attract more business and continue to grow in new market areas, such as electric vehicles and clean energy.”
Company Description: MES, Inc. is full-service provider of global manufacturing and supply chain management services, including sourcing, quality, logistics, near sourcing, inventory, and warehousing.
Pull Quote: “Alignment doesn’t happen overnight. Even minor setbacks can disrupt it, which means it requires time and effort to rebuild. As individuals and an organization, we always keep a learn-and-grow-from-it mindset.”
Company Name: MES, Inc.
Year of Establishment: 2007
Featured Leader: Hiten Shah
Role of Featured Leader: Founder and President
Office Location: Ohio
Website of the Company: https://www.mesinc.net/
