Interview with İbrahim Doğangün, Founder of Etis Endüstriyel

Ibrahim Doğangün, Founder and General Director of Etis (Endüstriyel Tesisler İmalat Sanayi), answered our questions. In this interview, Doğangün, one of the sector's most experienced figures, shared his expertise.

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

I am someone who values attention to detail, order, clear communication and sharing. I was born in September 1963 in Kırşehir as the third and youngest child of a family with a background in contracting and jewelry craftsmanship on my father's side, and judiciary and municipal service on my mother's side. During my early school years when my father worked in money exchange (1970-1974), I performed simple tasks in our shop. When we were Petrol Ofisi distributors in my early teens, I assisted with various tasks from gas station work to office duties during summer holidays. Through this, I gained an understanding of business life and commercial relationships of that era. These small tasks, guided by my father initially and then undertaken naturally as I grew accustomed, helped break down unnecessary pride and arrogance while developing my courage and entrepreneurial spirit. I studied Machine Engineering at Technical High School and Business Administration at university. My first serious work experience came during a gap period in my final university year when I took over and ran a small workmen's restaurant from my elder brother who had relocated. I ran this business for approximately eighteen months until military service. After six months of short-term military service, I wanted to establish my career in Istanbul. I had a five to six-month marketing position at a hardware product distribution business in Eminönü Küçükpazar offered by a relative, followed by an unsuccessful attempt to take over a hardware business due to insufficient capital and fear of non-payment. Around this time, a door accessory marketing business I had been doing part-time developed and stabilized nationwide. In parallel with this, I tried to act as a representative in European Istanbul for a factory producing doors from Ankara. This demanding work had not fully settled, compounded by the difficulties of Istanbul conditions and my resulting search, which ultimately led to my becoming a small shareholder by investing capital in Eksaş, with which I had been doing business selling hardware products.

Could you tell our readers how you entered this sector?

My search, driven by the difficulties of Istanbul conditions, resulted in my entry into this sector following Erhan Bey's partnership proposal. In 1992, I became a 20% shareholder by investing my apartment remaining from my family in Kırşehir, a car purchased with personal loans for marketing work, and a computer for office and accounting purposes. In the early periods, with help from my colleagues, I managed the company's financial structure. Subsequently, when necessity arose, I moved into production using my technical high school machine engineering knowledge. I began using computers in projects. We advanced to the point of designing the facilities we produced on computer. Our first simultaneous projects in 1992-1993 were Robert Bosch Türkiye (RBTR) Bursa factory and Beltan facility works. This gave me the opportunity to meet my idol Kemal Coşkunöz, whom I took as an example. For RBTR's facility automation component, we worked with Project Manager Halil İbrahim Kurt at SİMKO as the first domestic software solution. However, unfortunately, the location where the facility would be built was the worst possible location for a program-controlled facility—inside the Heat Treatment Section. On one hand, heat, steam, gas fumes, and on the other, noise, high-volume sounds and heavy human traffic. We struggled tremendously. I became Halil Bey's assistant until the project was completed. We preferred working at night after regular hours to work more calmly, and we struggled extensively each morning with hope that this time it would be finished. However, the structure was wrong from the beginning. We were like selling snails in a Muslim neighborhood. The facility was installed in the wrong location. Ultimately, we somehow got it working and delivered it, but we were practically exhausted. The facility did not operate very efficiently. Before long, the following year, we learned that they had dismantled the facility where we had left our heart and brow sweat in hamam-like heat and sent it to scrap, purchasing a new facility from Germany. Our first building at Eksaş was in the Small Industrial Site, and then in 1995 we moved to Çalı. About a year later, we rented a second building in the same area.

In 1999, we realized a joint factory building construction with the land owner in exchange for land. I learned factory construction through my experience here. During this partnership, we faced many difficulties arising from the general conditions of most countries, particularly the 1993-1994 devaluation.

In 1996, we became a subcontractor to the German Stohrer-Doduco firm as the main contractor in the construction of a drum-type Cr.Ni. Coating Facility at Samet Menteşe company's factory in Kıraç; I personally managed all seven months of assembly, which became my first encounter with German methodology. After an eight-year partnership characterized by difficult national conditions and challenging partnership relations, during which I became significantly impoverished materially while gaining exponentially in experience, I founded Etis in 2001, coinciding with the outbreak of the deepest crisis. It was a difficult period when leaving the partnership, let alone establishing a new company, made no sense to anyone. No one said "you know this business well, come work for us." What destroys the work and partnership is not loss, damage, or difficult conditions, but the inability to share. When this happens, you cannot manage most external and internal relationships. When the resulting stress combined with my doctor's advice, separation became necessary. Following my separation decision in autumn 2000, I wanted to soften the sudden change personally by both not losing income immediately and gaining time. With a sense of loyalty, I continued working for another 6-7 months without receiving compensation, transferring and completing the work on my shoulders. During this period, I tried to decide how to proceed.

Could you provide information about the establishment process of Etis Endüstriyel and the stages it has gone through to reach today? What is Etis Endüstriyel's current structure?

I founded Etis as a sole proprietorship with the abbreviation E.T.İ.S., short for "Endüstriyel Tesisler İmalat Sanayi" (Industrial Facilities Manufacturing Industry) on 12 February 2001. Thinking it would be inappropriate and unwelcome, I did not contact any of my former customers from my previous company. In dialogue and attempting to do business, there was limited mutual support from my former company, apparently due to their own circumstances. My first project was a small drum coating unit. I could only collect its advance payment. Despite multiple visits to their door. I visited small platers in the Küçükbalıklı neighborhood. A work colleague from my Eksaş days, Uğur Bey (Yüceyurt), offered me the painting work for fire extinguishers he had begun manufacturing. I took on this work as it would provide support if our own business wasn't performing well. With a spray booth he provided and a drying oven I manufactured, along with hiring a few more workers, we began this work. As a result, we didn't earn much from this work either, but it was important as a driving force and for gaining time. I can cite the following as important milestones in Etis' development process: at cost price, for reference and to test and prove myself, the construction of our first facility—a semi-automatic coating facility on Yunuseli Road in Bursa, which the governor had inaugurated; guided by Savaş Altınok, a doyen of our sector, receiving our first fully automatic facility order from Arçelik supplier Konveyör company. Subsequently, second and third facility orders from the same company the following year, which led us to work with German automation company DITEC; being obliged to invoice in 2003 for the past, current and following year's projects; ranking 27th in Bursa income tax; and consequently necessary conversion to Ltd. Co. on 31 December 2003—these have been important works in terms of our company proving itself and developing. As our projects increased during the process, we decided to expand our building. In 2004, we purchased a 1,402 m² plot in Görükle Industrial Zone. Immediately upon purchase, I personally designed and managed the construction, starting in June and completing the shell by December. We operated as the owner-company, with me personally handling quotations, projects and purchases, until our move to Görükle in 2005.

After relocating to our own premises in Görükle in 2005, we established our German representation around the same time. This enabled us to realize twelve projects in Germany, the European center of the industry.

Developments first led to our increasing the production area at our Görükle location to approximately 3,500 m² in 2007, and subsequently in 2013 to our move to the upper floor of our 11,000 m² building in Hasanağa OSB, which we had constructed for our group company Bodoplast, where we currently operate. Our direction has been to conduct work on 'Lean Manufacturing' through employing highly qualified workforce and operating systems to increase production efficiency, and to develop our infrastructure and create new investment opportunities for new areas. However, I must note that this path, particularly in our country, is extremely difficult.

Etis Endüstriyel mainly supplies which sectors with what types of products?

Could you provide information about the products, brands and services that Etis Endüstriyel particularly provides for the paints and coatings and surface treatment sectors?

Products, brands and services are shared values that communities pass down from generation to generation and/or that result from the knowledge, experience, ideas and all kinds of contributions put forward by different people and organizations. And they cannot nor should belong to anyone. As in all areas of life, in the industrial field as well, knowledge sharing and transfer are vital to our collective development. Our Anatolian culture has the guild system. Master-journeyman-apprentice relationships are aimed at ensuring the continuity and development of professions. Of course, this must be within certain ethical rules and respect for labor, otherwise there is no development. As someone from Kırşehir, the center of guilds, and having lived to some extent within the craftsman culture coming from guild tradition, I try to sustain, reflect and develop this understanding in my companies—among our employees whom I see as stakeholders, our suppliers, and even our customers and competitors. From this perspective, I can say that one of our most important contributions to the sector we are part of is, although not in the way I wished, the new companies established by colleagues who have worked in our organization. While this may seem like creating our own competitors from one perspective, from another perspective, if interpreted and applied correctly, it is a situation that increases total value. But the fundamental condition is the evolution and maturation of such companies as with individuals. The correct interpretation and application here is a subject that needs to be discussed and evaluated separately, affecting every area and truly representing a major sector need. While on the subject, I want to say that Etis owes its current position to all who contributed, including those who have left.

The sector is the same. This is actually two-sided, containing both what has been reached and what has not been reached, namely the successful and unsuccessful dimensions. Everyone needs to sit down and think about this.

Because we should think not only of ourselves, but of others and our shared future including our children. Another important brand value I can mention regarding the products, brands and services we provide for the surface treatment sector is Bodoplast Plastik Teknolojileri A.Ş., established in 2012 with 100% domestic capital as an example, pioneering and model project investment featuring environmentally conscious, advanced technology-equipped facilities and buildings designed to suit these facilities as the output of our own field of activity, to develop Etis' R&D capabilities. This investment is extremely important and critical both from our perspective and for the sector, both due to the multi-stage complex and highly sensitive nature of production technology, due to the very high investment budget, and due to the risk taken in the absence of any business guarantees at the time of decision. On the one hand, Bodoplast provides multifaceted added value for our country and sector in surface treatment on plastics, while on the other hand it serves as a source for internationally qualified R&D and B&D subjects—some completed, some in their final stages—and new applications and models. Etis has been a catalyst for and made significant contributions to the emergence of suppliers and new sub-industry such as automation in surface treatment. Burossa and Türmosan are companies to be mentioned in this context. Particularly regarding suspension production, the most critical auxiliary material input for plastic coating, supplier development activities—the support provided to newly established companies after Etis ceased suspension production for Ar Metal within its own organization—are similar quality important contributions to the sector. Agali and Gatech, established in Turkey with the support of Ocaktan GmbH, a company producing in Germany, are to be mentioned in this context. As pioneering first new applications in surface treatment facilities in Turkey, we can cite the following products and applications: Plastic aspirator manufacturing (at İzeltaş establishment DÖVSA), Code ruler (Tunaoğlu Otomotiv) and laser distance control system (Konveyör A.Ş.), Dip-spin technology passive and lacquer and drying unit and facilities (Teknik Vida), Dip-spin technology cleaning and painting facility (SFS), Drum immersion galvanizing pre-cleaning facility (Mitaş).

Launching automation control systems and interface applications from global suppliers used in overseas projects to our domestic suppliers (SAMET Menteşe, etc.).

In the surface treatment sector, when I entered in the years initially, Turkey was importing coating facilities. However, beginning in 2007, Etis company has been exporting facilities and units to countries such as Germany primarily and predominantly, India, Ukraine, Russia, Tunisia and the USA for the first time as investment goods. To speak generally of our main field of activity; our principal subjects include design, manufacturing, assembly and commissioning of surface treatment and coating facilities covering zinc, zinc-nickel, nickel, chromium, hard chromium, copper, decorative chromium on plastic (POP), phosphating, chromating, blackening (oxidation), anodizing, hard-anodizing, coloring, electroless nickel, electroless copper, electropolishing, cataphoretic painting (KTL) and similar immersion-type hanger-suspended, drum and dip-spin centrifuge basket turnkey industrial surface treatment and metal coating facilities manufacturing. Within the scope of these activities, all types of integrated units and equipment related to coating and surface treatment facilities are parts of our service and supply chain. Within the scope of our group company Bodoplast operations, primarily for the automotive industry, but also for white goods, electronics, bathroom and kitchen fixtures and accessories sectors, the production of products with decorative electro-chrome and satin nickel coatings are our main activity. In Bodoplast's injection molding machine fleet and flexible and fully automatic electro-metal coating facility equipped with the latest technological innovations; according to customer requirements, the company manufactures ABS and PC-ABS plastic injection products with CR+6 and CR+3 processes and metal-coated products in a wide palette of OEM-approved satin finish effects.

Could you discuss your domestic and international sales activities? What types of products do you primarily sell to which regions domestically and abroad?

With our management and manufacturing infrastructure involved in metal coating facility production since 1992, our company, combining past experience with rational management understanding, has taken a pioneering brand position in its sector with continuously developing and innovative approach and structure. Opening to international markets from 2006 onwards, our company has completed significant projects primarily to Germany as well as the United States, Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Mexico, Iran, India and North African countries.

What kind of work do you undertake in the fields of innovation and R&D as Etis Endüstriyel company? Do you have projects developed within the scope of university-industry cooperation, and if so, what are they?

As group companies, we have an R&D and Incentive Projects management unit providing common services. Etis, by nature of its activities, is a company that must conduct R&D and innovation studies in line with its customers' needs. Therefore, beyond merely placing importance, R&D and innovation are something we live continuously. Our R&D policy is to manufacture with innovative ideas in the latest technology standards of our sector and in line with market needs. At Bodoplast, we have initiated establishment work for Bodoplast R&D Center. With a young workforce, we are continuing policy preparation work to guide our young employees in R&D and innovation matters. Bodoplast, with its advanced technology-equipped and environmentally respectful fully automatic production facility, has succeeded in adding Cr+3 coating technology within the scope of R&D work encompassing innovative and novel approaches targeting automotive sector expectations. We have R&D work titled "Investigation of Masking Feature Paints in Surface Treatment in Electrochemistry Chromium Coating Process" with Prof. Dr. A. Kara, a faculty member at Uludağ University Chemistry Department Physical Chemistry Division. Previously, we had a TUBİTAK project work with an academic from Çukurova University faculty members. Our company views experienced and knowledge-accumulated personnel as its greatest investment, and with strategies prioritizing sustainable and continuous improvement, aims to meet our customers' requests and expectations and to be among the pioneers of companies operating in its field.

Could you provide information about Etis Endüstriyel's environmental policy and sustainability approach? What can you say about your worker health and safety activities?

They are the subjects to which we attach the most importance with our human, environmental and customer-focused vision. Our group company Bodoplast carries the exemplary business identity in this matter. Our production and quality system holds TS ISO 16949, ISO-14001 through its own wastewater treatment system, and ISO 18001 certifications prioritizing worker health and occupational safety. It has the capacity to conduct chemical process analyses and product validation, layout and process testing with its laboratory equipped with modern equipment and devices. This infrastructure has successfully completed inspections by many internal and external customers through Toyota, Renault, Ford, Mercedes OEMs. As a leading and important group in the surface treatment sector, which has the highest potential for hazardous waste in environmental matters, our most fundamental priority is to observe environmental regulations and standards both in the facilities we produce and in the facilities we operate, viewing the environment—the trust of future generations and our children—as our legacy. We exercise maximum care to follow a sustainable environmental management policy based on new applications and technologies in this field. In the quotation, planning and operation phases of new projects we conduct for our customers, we attempt to make recommendations emphasizing the environmental and long-term contributions of investments related to flue gas treatment, wastewater treatment and recovery infrastructure that could at least minimize environmental risks. During facility operation, we collect waste gases generated through aspiration systems and clean them in gas washing units to bring flue gas emissions to acceptable levels; we implement applications such as dual and triple cascade washing that reduce pollution at the source, reduce waste generation to a minimum along with water conservation, provide reuse, recycling, recovery and disposal. We plan project work aimed at bringing new technologies and development in this area. According to the quality standards we must observe, training related to worker health and safety and sustainable environment to develop environmental and social responsibility awareness among all our stakeholders—our subcontractors and employees—has already become our standard practice.

What criteria do you prioritize when developing investment plans for Etis Endüstriyel? Do you have investment plans for Etis Endüstriyel for the upcoming periods, and if so, what are they?

The most important investment we prioritize is investment in people. We have conducted numerous initiatives to do this from the very beginning and our investments continue. We operate with the conviction that all future investments depend on this foundation—on people. Within this context, our fundamental priority is institutionalization. Strengthening the competency of our human resources and therefore all our competencies—sound development with team and resources is only possible through institutionalization. With the desire to pass on an institution to future generations on the right path and in good position, I personally strive for this. With our current management team, we have also created very good synergy on this path. Regarding our institutionalization processes, we receive management consulting services from Hasan Özkapıcı through TWD© waypoint. As I mentioned in your previous question, we plan project work to bring and develop new technologies regarding reducing pollution at the source, reducing the use of scarce resources such as water conservation, minimizing waste generation, and reuse, recycling and recovery. Our investment to improve our plastic injection machine fleet, which began in 2014, is ongoing. As investments we have made over the last 5 years, we can particularly point to the additional building enabling us to double our building area, injection machines and unit investments enabling us to increase facility capacity. Planning for investments we will make in the coming 5 years is already prepared. Our vision as Bodoplast is to become a global company using high production technologies, environmentally and socially conscious, innovative, open to change, managing risks with competitive pricing policies, and pursuing continuous and balanced development, in line with our goal of being able to provide products and services suited to our customers' requests from the design stage. I can say that Etis, through the facility projects we have realized as industrial investments, is a company that has succeeded in creating added value in our country, and we take pride in this, thanks to the import substitution we have created as well as the net added value we have created through direct export to foreign countries. As our vision, I want to emphasize that we aim to be a company and beyond that a group more recognized in the world, known internationally for quality.