This hidden champion from Taiwan has been providing critical power supplies for the renowned massive LED panel of the Taipei Arena, to the equipment of battery swapping station Gogoro, and for something as large as smart buildings to something as small as handheld electronics.
This champion is Mean Well, and implies having good intentions.
Having entered its 38th year, Mean Well decided to publish a new book this year that records the birth and the path to success for the company, and the new book presentation hosted on December 12th not only saw the attendance of the founder Jerry Lin, but also the appearance of the company’s partners, including suppliers and dealers, who gathered together and celebrate the joy of the publication.
The story of Mean Well starts here. Founded by Jerry Lin in 1982, where the electronic information industry of Taiwan was just in its preliminary phase, Lin and his partners started their venture by delivering with scooters filled with boxes of self-assembled power supplies. Mean Well started with linear power supplies, and transitioned to switching power supplies, before moving onto the existing digital controls. The company had provided power supplies for electric toys, as well as PC power supplies compatible for Apple II and IMB, before developing the autonomous industrial power supplies nowadays.
Jerry Lin commented that he certainly did not think that Mean Well could have gone through almost 40 years of operation when he ventured in the garage back then, and now the company has not only marched towards the international market, but also became the largest standard power supply in the world, as well as the second largest LED power actuator brand in the world.
Most people are familiar with the sacred mountains TSMC and Silicon Shield (referring to the protective force formed by the information and semiconductor industry of Taiwan, Silicon Protection). In fact, apart from the Silicon Shield, the power supply industry of Taiwan also serves as a critical role in the global supply chain, where Delta, LITEON, Chicony, and Mean Well are ranked as the four largest power supply manufacturers in the world.
Pragmatic Employees, Highly Trustworthy Products and Partnerships, Attributed to Mean Well’s Success
Mean Well was able to board the international stage and continue to shine not because of star products and employees, but rather pragmatic workers and endless streams of product development competence, as well as the substantial partnerships with dealers all around the world.
Lin insists in “establishing trustworthiness”, which conforms to what he emphasizes about how CPU is the equivalent of a brain for a piece of equipment, whereas a power supply symbolizes the heart of a piece of equipment, and this heart has to provide stable voltage and current for the entire equipment, for one single failure of the heart will result in a loss that costs several times the price of a single power supply.
This is also the exact reason why Mean Well invested substantial amount of resources in establishing trustworthiness. Each model starts from market research, and move on to planning, design, verification of design, verification of design and quality, selection of suppliers, and selection of third parties, before proceeding to automated manufacturing, standardized training, and quality management. These layers of procedures have constituted the degree of trustworthiness in Mean Well’s products, and drastically reduced the malfunction rate, as well as minimized the cost of after-sales services.
In addition to the quality of each single product, the abundance of products by not relying on merely one “star product”, is also a major factor for Mean Well in becoming the largest standard brand in the world. The company currently has tens of thousands of models, and remains focused on adding 10% of new products each year.
The “high degree of trustworthiness” adhered by Lin has not only been manifested on the quality of Mean Well products, but is also the benchmark for the company in operating global dealer relationships. Apart from having a globally connected distribution system, Meal Well also maintains an excellent relationship with its dealers, where numerous working partners have accumulated decades of collaboration experience.
Mean Well’s cherishing in its working partners can be seen from the content of the successive exhibitions over the past several years. Instead of filling up the entire exhibition space with its own products, Mean Well decides to display all products that have been collaborated with the company, and showcases the company’s emphasis in all partnering manufacturers through the concept of “Powered by Mean Well” by transforming each product adopted with the power supply of Meal Well into the focus of the venue.
As commented by Steven Lagomarsino, CEO of TRC Electronics, in the documentary released on the 12th, “Mean Well represents far more than solidified quality in standard products, as it also embodies trustworthy and imperishable fellowships”.
(Cover photo source: captured by <TechNews>)