Alessandro Suman, an expert in precision mechanics, whose main experience had been in prototyping, founded the startup MECS in 2007, when he was 33. He started from scratch, realising his childhood dream of running a company of his own. He began as a supplier for his former employer, who also sold him his first automatic lathe. Two months later, he could buy his second Swiss type automatic lathe. Identified his “blue ocean” made of difficult and unprofitable workings that anyone does not want to do, in a year he acquired over twenty customers of different fields.
Since 2009, the company has provided internships in collaboration with Professional Institutes, and it has increased its staff, developing an internal organisation. In the same year, two partners took part in the company.
During the following three years, MECS doubled the dimension of its plant, started milling, too, extending its activity to precision mechanics, acquired young unexperienced employees and dealed with about fifty customers.
When one of the partners untimely passed away, the company dissolved in 2015 and the other partner was replaced by the founder’s wife, Rossella Paccapelo, who had supported the company from the beginning.
The company has increasingly focussed on the well-being of its team and its work environment since 2016. Moreover, it has concentrated on the optimisation of the organisational processes and on strategic planning. The result has been a new challenge: creating a design unit in order to work at a product idea.
In 2017 the main office of MECS moved to HUB22, a cluster of businesses dedicated to innovation processes that the Sumans decided to create in Ivrea along with some ambitious projects.
MECS taken part in the A&T international fair in Turin, an Italian program of so-called dual-training systems – learning and working and in the PMI day. It was part of several initiatives dedicated to career guidance and developed a MES (Manufacturing Execution System) according to the needs of a small business and in compliance with the national guidelines of Industry 4.0.
The use of the MES, still in a testing phase, became crucial when, in August 2018, Suman stayed victim of a serious accident that immobilized him in a bed for a few months. At that time, he worked remotely as a “director” who monitored the production in real time from his bed. During first half of 2018 MECS has kept investing on people and company growth offering training sessions in order to prepare for the conversion to 4.0. It has founded the HUB22 Mechatronics business network within HUB22. This focusses on mechatronics and has been created in collaboration with three other synergic companies in order to offer complete and innovative solutions, from the design to the final product. MECS taked part to the Tavolo della Meccanica del Piemonte and together with the network, MECS exhibited at the international fair A&T in Turin.
The 2019 begun under the best auspices and marked its rebirth. The company “changed skin”, replacing part of its staff on a voluntary basis, with people more in line with its ambitious projects. MECS exhibited at the “Fornitore Offresi” international fair in Erba, with other turneries of the “Tavolo della Meccanica del Piemonte”. Moreover it exhibited at the first edition of the “Tornitura Show” international fair in Bergamo. MECS also brought with it a piece of its territory in the fairs, as the UNESCO heritage of Ivrea, with the industrial history of Olivetti, from which a part of our know-how comes.
In August the company moved its plant from Burolo to HUB22, tripling the total area. MECS improved the working environment with new and bright spaces, new services and a climate-controlled production area, for the well-being of its people.
In February 2020 MECS exhibited at the “Fornitore Offresi” international fair again, as “guest company” in partnership with Auton Sistemi srl, its CAD/CAM distributor. After ten days of lockdown imposed by the Covid-19 emergency, MECS starts again with some “essential” productions thanks to its multisectoriality, engaging in particularly complex machinings. To encourage its customers, it offers a free prototyping service. In the summer, it enters a new sector and acquires three new customers. Thanks to the collaboration with its own business network, it produces an entire product for the first time After six months from the lockdown, the company returns to invest in human and technological resources, and continues to develop.
Following the economic recovery of the manufacturing sector, in the first quarter of the following year MECS triumphs both in terms of turnover and prospects. So, it continues to hire and invest in new technology. The three-year period 2020-2022 ends with the 80% revenue’s increase, doubling in 2023, and with a recognition of Il Sole 24 Ore for which MECS, being among the top 500 Italian SMEs with higher turnover growth, is Leader of Growth 2023.
In 2024 MECS introduces other important innovations: in the first half of the year, it starts working for a famous brand in the goldsmith sector and starts a new activity of assembly of industrial machines. In the following months, it acquired two certifications: ISO 9001:2015 and UNI/PdR 125:2022 and becomes Leader of Growth 2025. The year ends with PMI Day.
