At its U.S. facility, ESP trains quality engineers and managers who will staff its overseas operations.

President Jeff Hamilton grew and globalized ESP International after he purchased the seal distributor in 1996. The strategies to change the company were formulated after listening to customers.  

“Our customers wanted suppliers with in-house technical expertise, high-level information technology, value-added services and a global presence,” he recalls.    

Today, ESP International serves original equipment manufacturers, and has successfully developed in-house engineering that helps design seal applications, metal castings and forgings, and also provides value-added assembly and inventory management programs.   

After working with customers on design, ESP then uses its qualified domestic and global sources to find the most cost-effective manufacturer of the components, which include dies, investment and sand casting, forgings, machined components, subassembly, oil seals, seal kits, o-rings, molded rubber and specialty gasketing. ESP can then provide any necessary subassembly or add the components to a highly automated in­­ventory management program.   

John Deere was one of the customers that Hamilton listened to in 1996. “John Deere is an international company,” Hamilton explains. “A global platform helps us serve our customers at a high level and be of more value when it comes to helping them achieve cost reduction and vendor consolidation. We have facilities, employees and qualified sources around the globe, and we can pick the best cost model.”   

John Deere has many resources internationally, and ESP can also
help supplement what John Deere is already doing. “Even the big companies can’t do everything; we can help them on the lower level initiatives,” Hamilton explains.   

Globalization also helps ESP’s smaller customers. Most of ESP’s smaller customers do not have a global presence. “With ESP’s resources, the smaller customers can plug into ESP and gain an engineering and global platform comparable to the bigger companies without having
to make significant investments,” Hamilton states.

Global Vision
Hamilton estimates that around 15 percent of its sales are overseas and the rest are domestic, however, he expects that to change in the next two to five years. “I think we’ll continue to see growth into China and India,” he says. “We will continue to work with our international customers who will require serving them in China, India and other parts of the globe. Customers in those countries like the fact that we have facilities overseas and can provide global inventory management.   

“We will continue to invest in global platforms,” he adds. “We’re investing and preparing to open sites in Vietnam, Mexico, Central America and Eastern Europe.”   

The company’s focus is to have a single global vision. “We will have our people running quality control and supplier quality in the countries where we do business,” he states.   

This is the only way to be successful, he says. “With this platform, we are seeing growth and expansion globally,” he notes.

Value-Added
ESP International has quadrupled its sales since it expanded its strategy, services and work force. “We strategically looked at how we’re going to create a platform for growth and create a solid model for the future,” Hamilton explains. “For the long term, we want to continue to increase the value added to our customer. ESP has successfully implemented engineering services, assembly services, assembly fixtures, kitting, global supplier qualification and the technology to efficiently provide the services.     

“We will continue to expand globally and increase our engineering and assembly capabilities,” Hamilton adds.  ESP’s customers also have been impressed with the quality and mistake proofing of the value–added services, he notes.
           
Quality Standards
Quality control is a vital part of ESP, Hamilton says. “We have a very stringent process to qualify our manufacturing partners and a unique ability to take a product from start to finish,” he says. “We work with manufacturing engineers in the design process, and we have the capability to test prototypes designs and the ability to figure out the best cost solution.”    

The best way to ensure quality is to have its own people present in its overseas locations in China and India, Hamilton says. Its Chinese facility has 14 supplier-quality engineers and managers who were trained in its U.S. facility and have equipment to do full measurement, chemical and destructive analysis.  “Our strategy is to have a good blend of western and eastern cultures in our global facility,” Hamilton states. He adds that this has been the reason for the success in getting the quality to meet customers’ needs. All of ESP’s facilities are ISO certified.

The Next Level
Before acquiring ESP International, Hamilton’s background was in fi­nance and accounting. “My specialty was working with small, family owned businesses,” he says. He says his background, along with the right management team, enabled ESP to get to the next level. “It was critical to put together a management team that could take the strategies and make them actionable and execute,” Hamilton explains.    

He says he looks for people with a sense of urgency, a level of independence and associates that want to be truly engaged. “Designing a compensation plan around success was also key,” Hamilton states.  

ESP also set up an employee stock ownership program, he adds. “The management team believes that we have a great platform that will be able to serve our customers at a high level and more than double our company within the next five years,” Hamilton states.