Sistem Teknik Makine General Manager Mr. Oğuz Şahin

Interview with Sistem Teknik Makine General Manager Oğuz Şahin on Sistem Teknik Makine and the Electron brand.

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

First, I would like to express how delighted I am that we are conducting this interview on behalf of our company. I was born in Düzce in 1967. After completing my primary, secondary and high school education in Istanbul, I graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Yıldız Technical University in the same city in 1990. I worked abroad for 2 years in various countries as a machinery and workshop manager. Following the end of my military service in 1993, I entered the electrostatic powder coating systems sector and worked professionally in companies in the sector for 5 years. In 1998, we founded Sistem Teknik Makine Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş with our current partners. Our company, which started with 10 people, has succeeded in turning our Electron brand into a world brand with 150 employees today.

Could you provide information about Sistem Teknik Makine's founding process and the stages it has gone through to reach today? What is the current structure of Sistem Teknik Makine?

Sistem Teknik Makine, with approximately 150 staff members, is regarded as one of the leading companies in domestic and international markets in the sector, and is an exemplary firm followed for its advanced technology, team and quality. Sistem Teknik Makine was founded in Istanbul in 1998 with 100% Turkish capital. Our company, which distinguished itself in the domestic market, has expanded abroad through its quality, reliability and innovative policies. To increase our current capacity and strengthen our position in the sector, we established our new factory in Izmir in 8,500 m² of enclosed area as of 2008. We currently export to more than 50 countries worldwide, including China, Italy, Russia, Germany and South Africa. Sistem Teknik is now among the world's largest powder coating equipment and complete powder coating facility manufacturers, not just in Turkey. We work continuously with our innovative team, which is open to learning, in order to raise our Electron brand above world brand standards. Currently, 70% of the countries to which we export have distribution agreements in place. These distributors sell the Turkish brand Electron to their own countries. In the coming years, together with our exports, we aim to increase these percentages by at least 20%.

What types of products does Sistem Teknik Makine mainly supply to which sectors? Could you provide information about Sistem Teknik Makine's products, brands and services?

Sistem Teknik Makine, under the Electron brand manufactures powder coating spray equipment and complete powder coating facilities, as well as all spare parts and assemblies for these facilities and equipment. The products we manufacture can be sold to all sectors containing metal, aluminium and similar parts. For example, from a refrigerator manufacturer to a watch producer, or from a fire extinguisher manufacturer to a wheel rim manufacturer, all sectors containing aluminium and equivalent parts are our customers and potential markets. In short, we can say that we supply products and services to almost all general industrial sectors. As Sistem Teknik Makine, we design, modify and develop our products according to the needs of target countries and markets. One of our company's greatest advantages is our ability to react quickly to requests, problems or demands and provide solutions. This ensures customer satisfaction while strengthening brand trust.

Could you tell us about your domestic and international sales activities? Which regions and what types of product sales do you carry out primarily domestically and abroad?

I would like to continue by stating the ratios of our domestic and international sales. Approximately 30% of our sales are domestic and 70% are international. I should note that in these ratios, the share of international sales has been changing positively in recent years. We can point to the impact of our advertising activities and brand management as complementary elements of our successful sales policy. By combining these elements with quality, we can say that we have begun to take the places of firms that matter in the global market and have managed to move ahead of them.

"To be preferred, we have made trust, quality and technology the cornerstones of our brand and continue to do so."

We evaluate regions by country and consider each country a potential working area. With our continuously evolving product portfolio, we sell to a large part of the African, Asian, European and Middle Eastern regions, particularly to countries such as China, South Africa, Italy, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Recently we have been viewing South America as a target market. In markets like China, we have recently begun to become more active than companies seen as world giants, and this strengthens our hand in other markets as well. To be preferred, we have made trust, quality and technology the cornerstones of our brand and continue to do so.

What kind of work do you do as Sistem Teknik Makine in the field of innovation and R&D? Do you have projects developed within the scope of university-industry cooperation; if so, what are they?

In order to be a leading technology company, we view R&D as the most important tool in all our decisions and strategic business activities. While continuously developing our R&D opportunities and making continuous investments in R&D projects to follow or lead the constantly evolving technology, keeping our team in continuous development is among our top priorities. To strengthen our R&D activities and be a trendsetter in tomorrow's technology, we work in cooperation with institutes, universities, graduate and doctorate programs and think-tank organizations. Currently, together with powder coating equipment we have developed through TUBITAK projects, our design of smart plastic cabins and cyclone-filter groups is continuing to develop within the scope of KOSGEB support. Sistem Teknik Makine, which is based on quality and development, has taken steps towards becoming an R&D centre and a hub of attraction for the sector, not just following technology but creating it. Our new product, which in the near term we can describe as a pumped powder coating equipment that only a few companies we describe as pioneers in the sector worldwide can produce and which we have begun to sell, is an indicator that we are setting world standards.

Could you provide information about Sistem Teknik Makine's environmental policy and sustainability approach? What can you say about your work related to worker health and safety?

We currently operate with the principle of putting human and environmental health safety first. We accept this as fundamental in all our investments and manufacturing, and we produce facilities and equipment adhering to European standards and criteria. The health and safety of each of our employees is our responsibility, and at the same time, it is our obligation to educate the personnel responsible for the use of the facilities and equipment we produce. In this regard, we have a department within our company that deals solely with these issues. Our energy management approach is based on minimum energy consumption and maximum efficiency, and we produce our products accordingly and balance energy sources. We carry environmental responsibility and respect our planet. In this direction, our operations are regularly inspected and certified within the scope of ISO standards.

Which criteria are prioritized when Sistem Teknik Makine draws up investment plans? Do you have investment plans for Sistem Teknik Makine for the coming periods; if so, what are they?

Particularly in the technology age where time is important and the speed of access to information is a determining factor, our priority investments start with our personnel with the motto "qualified people, qualified work". Our qualified personnel structure, as a technology-producing group, gives us the opportunity to quickly identify errors and deficiencies, react quickly and eliminate negative factors to achieve quality. Our investments, which start with people, continue with the continuous renewal of our production equipment. In the process ahead, our investments, which begin with people and equipment, will continue in the area of sales and marketing. Our current goal is to increase our existing sales centres. Our investments made for globalisation will continue to increase.