Interview with Teoman Alper Yiğit, General Manager of FANUC Türkiye

In the interview we conducted, FANUC Turkey General Manager Teoman Alper Yiğit answered our questions. Yiğit provided information about FANUC's products and technologies for the paints and coatings sectors.

Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your education and professional background?

After graduating from Bahçeşehir Üniversitesi's Mechatronics Engineering department, I completed a Micro MBA program at Galatasaray Üniversitesi. I began my career in the pneumatic and electro-pneumatic sectors in sales, and later continued my career as a professional manager in robotics, machinery and control systems sectors at international companies. I participated in various transformation and development projects such as service and after-sales support in the organizations where I worked. In 2014, I was awarded FANUC's global "Top Sales Person" award, a company where I continue to work today.

Could you provide information about FANUC's establishment process and the stages it has gone through to the present day? What is FANUC's current structure?

Could you share information about FANUC's operations in Turkey? FANUC Turkey was founded in 1993 as an organization providing service for our products operating in the field. In 2012, we added Sales, Technical Support and Operations departments to our organization. As FANUC, we are a world leader in factory automation for production machines such as CNC control systems, industrial robots, Robodrill (machining centers), Robocut (wire electrical discharge machining), Roboshot (plastic injection molding) and Robonano (precision turning). FANUC operates in the areas of sales, service, technical support, R&D and customer service. Our only manufacturing facility is in Japan. Speaking about our production facility, we have over 4,500 robots in our own manufacturing process. In FANUC's manufacturing facility, robots produce robots. In other words, we produce our own products with our own machines. In today's world where we talk about Industry 4.0, we are a company that applied this advanced technology to its own factory years ago. Our role is to explain the importance and difference of the relationship between humans and robots in factories' production processes. Our strategy is not just to sell an existing product, but to apply the solutions we create to the customer as well. In this way, we do not limit the matter to just product sales, but provide manufacturers with value-added and needed solutions.

Could you provide information about the products, brands and services that FANUC offers for the paints, coatings and surface treatment sectors?

FANUC has a wide range of painting and coating robot variants to help factories significantly improve painting processes on their production lines. Our FANUC painting robots, which we have continued to produce since 1982 and developed through our experience, serve in a wide variety of painting and coating applications, offering easy access, optimum working range and maximum efficiency. Designed to work in hazardous environments with explosion risk, with reach ranging from 704mm to 2.8m and carrying capacities from 5kg to 45kg, there is a FANUC model to meet your painting, coating or adhesive application needs.

Could you tell us about your domestic and international sales activities? What types of products do you primarily sell to which regions domestically and internationally?

With more than 264 FANUC offices worldwide and over 7,000 employees, FANUC offers a very broad and comprehensive service network in the areas of sales, technical support, research and development, logistics and customer service. We operate on 7 continents with over 650,000 robots and total product installations exceeding 25,000,000 worldwide. Our sales activities are primarily focused on CNC and robots, and through our product ranges including vertical machining centers (Robodrill), wire electrical discharge machining (Robocut), 100% servo-controlled plastic injection molding machines (Roboshot) and laser resonator products, we conduct sales activities primarily in the automotive and general industry sectors.

Could you provide information about the technologies FANUC has developed specifically for the paints, coatings and surface treatment sectors? What are FANUC's Industry 4.0 products, systems and services specifically for these sectors?

FANUC provides solutions to its customers not only with high protection certified (ATEX) robots but also in terms of process equipment. The equipment we provide with robots for the application of 1K and 2K components offers convenience to our customers. In many applications, you can select the relevant equipment according to the job you will perform without needing third-party equipment and include them in the robot configuration. Additionally, we have a simulation program called PaintPRO for working offline and simulating painting and coating processes. Through this program, you can perform appropriate robot selection, layout planning, cycle time determination and robot trajectory creation. For example, when you input the paint thickness you will apply to a vehicle into the program, the robot's trajectories and parameters are automatically generated and provided to you. Like all our robots, our painting robots can be connected to our ZDT system, which is our IoT platform. This allows the system to monitor robot and equipment status in real time and automatically alert you, informing you in advance about possible production stoppages before any problems occur.

Could you provide information about FANUC's environmental policy and sustainability approach? What can you tell us about your work related to occupational health and safety?

FANUC is a company that continuously conducts research and development on many issues including reducing energy consumption by promoting renewable energy use, ensuring products have long lifespans, manufacturing from fewer and environmentally friendly components, and restoring existing products through repair and reuse. To explain this topic with a few examples: our current robot controller technology provides approximately 40% energy savings compared to the previous generation. Another example is that we provide 30% discount to our customers for replacement products in service on the condition of returning the old product. The basic aim here is to send faulty products to repair centers for renewal and re-use to customers under warranty rather than storing them in a corner. If a component cannot be repaired, we send it to disassembly facilities for recycling. Not only in parts changes but also in direct requests, we repair products and return old and faulty products to production. Regarding occupational health and safety in painting processes; as is known, paint content extensively uses synthetic materials. These materials, which can be in liquid, powder or vapor form, can be extremely dangerous to human health. Particularly solvents, thinners, pigments and resins can cause significant damage to human health. Serious asthma problems that emerge in later ages are just one example of these illnesses. Despite all precautions taken, people can be exposed to these chemicals. In this regard, our recommendation is to use robots and automation in processes that have serious health impacts such as painting. Additionally, the use of robots and automation provides significant advantages in terms of standard paint quality and paint consumption. At FANUC, we are always ready to support our customers with our expert engineers in conducting necessary project analyses.

What criteria does FANUC prioritize when drawing up investment plans? Does FANUC have investment plans for the coming periods, and if so, what are they?

Automation company FANUC is committed to achieving strong growth in Europe by responding to customers' increased support and service needs. In the last three years, it invested approximately EUR 150 million in the expansion of its affiliates in Europe and will continue these investments over the next three years. Thus, by 2022, 25 of FANUC's total 36 offices in Europe will be expanded or renovated. While FANUC investments continue in Europe, significant developments are also taking place in Turkey. During 2020, FANUC Turkey will realize a new smart building investment of EUR 15 million on a 10,000 square meter area in Istanbul Sancaktepe. Additionally, FANUC Turkey's repair center investment has been completed and started providing service to customers as of February 2020. This repair center investment also carries the distinction of being FANUC's second repair center in Europe.