The proliferation of personalization for the consumer is the creation of an explosion of new products and “versions” of products. Products no longer maintain a sufficient shelf life before a new version is needed and supply chains struggle to manage the requirements of fickle consumer demand. MES has developed a global supply chain system that provides complete outsourcing of supply chain management including vendor selection, quality management, storage and JIT shipments supported by state of the art IT systems. And its solution is specifically designed to support those products with a short life cycle and lower volumes, freeing Supply Chain Directors and victory points to focus on core, high volume products.
By Hiten Shah, president, “We believe that there are three important parameters in the supply chain -. Deliveries on time (OTD), quality parts per million (ppm) rejects, and inventory control “MES focuses on timely deliveries and PPM quality than the two metrics that are the differentiators. PPM quality is based on the supplier selection process; Customized automation, and its Advanced Quality Planning process or APQP. First, the vendor selection process is overseen by a corporate engineer / auditor who applies a global lens to ensure vendor standardization. MES ‘second competitive advantage is its tailor-made automation that integrates with its SAP ERP and MRP systems. Each factory and warehouse is equipped with the ability to manage the offer and inventory from a smartphone through applications built by MES for iOS and Android phones. The engineer can log in and take pictures of parts, production or problems and record those images as updates, which are integrated with the attribute inventory through SAP. The data is then sent electronically to the selected management personnel almost immediately to keep them informed of the status of operations and customer compliance. MES third tool is your APQP process that supports the strategic planning and follow-up of development, testing and launching of a new product. All data is stored and monitored in your internal system in which you track quality problems, including the selection of suppliers, quality, audits, and reporting from the factory throughout the life cycle of the project. MES has even added its own R & D store to help customers with prototyping, which now accounts for more than 10 percent of sales. Through the integration of its SAP ERP and MRP systems, MES has end-to-end visibility of its inventory, transit warehouses, suppliers and orders and guarantees 360 transparency through a portal built especially for its suppliers.
A successful case study is a custom solution developed for a large in-house customer machining copper rod that required 99.995 percent purity. The house process was complex and expensive, but MES accessed its global network to develop a different forging process. Through supplying suppliers that covered four different raw material suppliers in Europe, China and India, and three different manufacturers in India and China, MES developed a new operation and reduced its customers’ costs by 30 percent. In his future, Shah sees Europe and Mexico as his next expansion. By Shah, “We are leveraging our trade and finance infrastructure in Hong Kong, China and India to sell in the regions of Europe and Mexico that have grown phenomenally from zero percent in 2013 to just under 50 percent of our sales. this year, “says Shah. “We deal with old industrial raw materials such as foundry, forge, injection molded parts, rubber components and copper components. However, our supply chain solutions are built around strong IT systems and data analysis. The heart of the efficiencies that we have, is derived from the dedication of our people and the effectiveness of our systems, “he concludes.