Interview with T. Emrah Sözer, Production Director of Sözer Makina

Interview with Sözer Makina Production Director T. Emrah Sözer on Professional Experience and Products Offered to the Sector

 

Mr. Emrah Sözer, could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your education, and your professional background in the sector?

I was born in Istanbul but am originally from Rize. I have a four-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son. I graduated from Şişli Terakki High School and then from the Industrial Engineering Department at Kadir Has University. During my university years, I worked on various engineering projects within the scope of the Chamber of Mechanical Engineers to which we belonged. I also gained experience in production, machinery, and industry sectors through various project work at companies such as Arçelik, SPK Boru, and Şişecam. After graduation and military service, I started my working life at Sözer Makina, our family company, as a member of the third generation. Over approximately 12 years at Sözer Makina, I have served in various positions, and I currently continue my work as Production Director at the company.

Could you outline the development process of Sözer Makina since its establishment?

Sözer Makina was founded in 1946 in Istanbul-Karaköy by Ali Sözer. He was a graduate of Sultan Ahmet Vocational School, one of the best schools of that era, from the Turning and Finishing Department. Through his way of thinking, he left behind valuable advice as a legacy that would set an example for future generations. Sözer Makina is a company that has been exemplary in domestic machine manufacturing in Turkey since the second half of the 1900s. Our company, operating under the "Sözer" brand, has focused particularly on the paints and chemical sectors since 1970 to the present day. Under the Sözer brand name, we have been manufacturing machinery for three generations since our establishment. After Ali Sözer, our company passed to his sons as the second generation, and has reached us as the third generation today. Sözer Makina has continued its journey, which began in a small workshop in the Karaköy Thursday market, and with its growing and expanding structure, it now operates from its modern factory with a total enclosed area of 4,750 m² in the İMES Organized Industrial Zone in Dilovası, Kocaeli. We strive to keep our machinery park as new and comprehensive as possible according to current production conditions and machine manufacturing quality standards. As a company that exports 60% of its machinery production abroad, we always try to place emphasis on standardization and quality production. In this context, we continue our production with universal machine tools and devices as well as new-generation CNC machine tools and equipment. Even when processing large parts on machine tools, our aim is to ensure continuous standardization. Sözer Makina, with its current structure and experience, strives to provide equal level of service to all its customers, regardless of whether they are large or small companies. Whether someone requests a 10-liter capacity laboratory device from us or a daily 60-ton capacity fully automatic PLC system turnkey project, we take care to provide the closest possible solutions and remedies.

Could you tell us about your product groups? Which sectors do you serve?

Today, as Sözer Makina, we serve primarily the paints sector, as well as chemistry, construction, cosmetics, and agricultural pesticides sectors. Our main area of expertise consists of mixers capable of serving different viscosity levels. Within our product range, we have the machines that must be present in a chemical company: mixers, vacuum and scraper high-speed mixers, pearl-mill wet grinding machines, basket-mill type wet grinding machines, high-capacity platform mixers, planetary malaxer machines for medium-viscosity products, combined multi-shaft vacuum scraper mixers, z-mixer machines for high-viscosity products, putty mixers, liquid filling and weighing machines, kettle discharge presses, mixing impellers, and various pumps. In addition to all high-capacity types, we also manufacture laboratory type equipment for small-scale production. As Turkey has grown, the recognition of the Sözer brand has begun to increase abroad as well. Our company, which made its first export in 1986, today exports 65% of its annual production to 49 different countries with more than 65 years of accumulated knowledge and experience. We have various products used especially in the production of interior and exterior facade paints in the paints sector. Sözer Makina is a company that has spent especially the last 44 years manufacturing mixer mixing machines used in the chemical industry. The most important characteristic that distinguishes our company is that we practice customer-oriented manufacturing. When establishing the standard in our products, user feedback has been evaluated over the years, and our machines have been shaped accordingly, and we continue to conduct ongoing R&D work to produce new types of machines. For example, when we present a suggestion to our customer—such as if our machine had this particular feature, you could reduce your production processes and increase product quality in this way—as a user, our customer appreciates this. Our goal is always to create differentiation through high-value-added machines, reducing manufacturing processes while elevating quality to the highest possible levels for products that users manufacture. "Our goal is always to create differentiation through high-value-added machinery, reducing manufacturing processes while bringing quality to the best possible levels."

Could you tell us about your customer portfolio? Which regions do you serve?

As a company that has served Turkey since 1946, our machinery is found in virtually every company operating in our respective sectors. We try to participate in all trade fairs held domestically and internationally that are related to the sectors we serve. Our objective at this point is to reach new companies, present our new machines to our existing customers, listen to their feedback, and develop solutions. As a company that made its first export in 1986, the most important factor in reaching this point has been the trade fairs we participate in abroad. Because your sales increase as your recognition increases. We also make sure to participate in all trade fairs with our machinery. When our guests who visit our stand see our products in person rather than from a catalog, their perspectives change. Especially as a result of trade fairs we participate in on the European continent, when people express the view "I have seen this company before in Germany, France as well," this ensures that the company name takes root in people's minds and creates awareness that products of this quality are manufactured in Turkey. Additionally, our domestic and international activities include advertising in industry-related magazines, newspapers, and bulletins, as well as promotional work. Our export success is an indicator of our quality. All machinery we manufacture and all turnkey facilities we install are of a quality and standard that can serve abroad. Since 1986, as an exporting company, we currently export 65% of our annual production to 39 different countries. Our export success is an indicator of our quality. Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Turkish Republics constitute our primary export markets. In recent years, especially following increased recognition in Europe, we receive numerous dealership requests. Our European competitors' prices are two to three times higher than ours. We have seen another advantage of participating in trade fairs with our machinery at this very point. Once our visitors see that they can purchase our products—which are similar in quality and in some respects even better than equivalent products—at half the price, they change their choices. We have also conducted and continue to conduct various work in terms of foreign dealerships or distributorships, and we plan to present ourselves to our customers in this regard through a large-scale initiative in the last quarter of this year.

Could you provide information about your R&D activities? What work do you conduct to meet the expectations of your customers?

As Sözer Makina, we place importance on KOSGEB and TUBITAK projects. We benefit from support through projects we have prepared during various periods. We have long benefited from support covering many topics such as qualified personnel, international trade fair participation, software, catalog, and advertising support under the KOSGEB general support projects. We have carried out various projects within the scope of TUBITAK projects and have ongoing work in this direction. We strive to conduct industry-university cooperation work; in this context, we try to benefit from the R&D centers of some universities. Not long ago, we undertook the project of a machine that had never been manufactured in Turkey before. For example, the target customer base for that machine consisted of companies manufacturing products with viscosity between 1,500 and 3,000,000 centipoise. By combining the high-speed mixer technology previously produced with the planetary malaxer system that we have been manufacturing for years into a single machine, we brought the Combined Malaxer Machine project to life. Our customers had serious demands regarding this machine. Different capacity models of this machine were also produced in the very short time since then. These processes could already be performed with two different machines—a high-speed mixer and a planetary malaxer—in Sözer machinery, but in our machine, the work of two machines is accomplished with a single machine. Consequently, user costs were reduced by approximately 70%, and final production time was reduced by 40%.

Could you tell us about the quality principles you apply for the reliability of your products and the continuity of your company?

It is among our indispensable principles that all processes applied in our company are carried out at international quality levels and continuously improved with the participation of employees, that the environment is protected during our activities, and that the products we manufacture are produced in a manner most suitable to our customers' economic and technical requirements. As required by ISO 9001:2008, 14001:2004, 18001:2007 Quality Management Systems that aim to control every stage of the operating process in its entirety, high quality and productivity, low cost, and timely delivery are targeted. To continuously improve the performance of these systems, our quality policy includes: determining customer needs and expectations, understanding our customers' wishes, needs, and expectations fully and accurately, maximizing customer satisfaction, maintaining the achieved satisfaction level and working to continuously improve it, doing the work done correctly and right the first time, planning every job performed, doing it correctly and completely the first time, making this a principle, our employees' satisfaction and development—considering that our employees are the most important factor that constitutes our quality—ensuring our employees' development and continuously increasing our quality by maintaining training as an integral part of Sözer Makina, and having win-win relationships with our suppliers and customers, establishing long-term, good faith, and integrity-based open relationships with suppliers and customers with whom we conduct business.

In your view, what needs to be done to increase both quality and efficiency simultaneously?

There are universally accepted working standards. Within this framework, in order to always remain quality, you must work hard and research well. I have a phrase I very much like: quality is not controlled, it is produced. We are a company that strives to conduct our work within this logic. To increase efficiency, we hold regular meetings with our team leaders and coordinators. As the third generation, the fact that all of Sözer Management is made up of engineers means we work well in harmony with professionally minded employees who speak the same language and are passionate about production. Everyone working at Sözer Makina, from the lowest level to our General Director, is part of a structure that values teamwork. We have a slogan at Sözer Makina: everyone who works at Sözer Makina is a star. I believe that processes should be controlled rather than people, and through this, efficiency is reflected in the system, naturally also reflecting in individuals. If you produce quality, if your methods are in line with current conditions—that is, if you remain current—and if you can closely follow technology and apply it to your production, you increase your efficiency.

Do you provide pre-sale and after-sale support activities? How do you determine your vision principles for customer satisfaction?

Before the sale, we try to contact our customers or potential customers in a highly satisfactory and technically rich manner. First, we take their requirements, and then we make our solution presentations. If it is a newly designed project, our R&D team's engineering capability is very strong; together with them, we develop our project internally, we work through our designs on computers with solid modeling, and so to speak, we put it on the table, discuss it and consult, and present it to our customer with an excellent presentation. Wherever in the world, our experienced assembly team carries out the commissioning process. This team includes both our mechanical personnel and our electrical technicians. An engineer always supervises the designated team. We conduct trial production with our customer, provide all maintenance and instruction documents, and hand over our project. Then, after the sale, we provide service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The expiration of the warranty period on our machinery does not actually mean much to us. No matter where in the world, we are at the customer's location within at most one week. As a 72-year-old company today, we have places where our mixers from 35 years ago are still operating. We can still provide spare parts for many of them. No matter how many years pass, if there is a Sözer label on a machine, we are always behind that machine.

We have completed the first quarter of the year; how do you evaluate it from your company's objectives perspective? What do you foresee for the rest of 2018?

The Turkish machinery sector has made significant progress in recent years, and as a result, our exports in different sectors have increased. For this progress to continue, our most important expectation is particularly the increase in export support and credit facilities. The development of Turkish industry primarily depends on state support. Incentives, grants, and support offered to large-scale or SME-status companies should be increased without discrimination. Every improvement made will increase the recognition of our country abroad along with increased interest in exports. In the long term, I believe that foreign investors will increasingly prefer our country and that other sectors may also be positively affected by this. The paints and chemical sector in our country generally shows a very volatile graph. Consequently, we are also affected by these balances and determine our investments accordingly. Due to economic balances, many companies are hesitant to make investments. Particularly in terms of cash financing, there are serious problems in the domestic market. In a chain effect, the customer, seller, manufacturer, and supplier are all affected by this situation. At this point, we have recently turned more toward the foreign market. Among the targets we have set under the leadership of our General Director Ahmet, the most important is to increase our production capacity by 50% by the end of 2017. We also aim to enter markets where we do not currently export and increase our recognition through trade fairs or visits.

Finally, do you have a message you would like to convey to the sector?

I especially want to send a message from here to our domestic investors. Domestic investors should trust Turkish machinery manufacturers and the technology they use. We no longer need to import machinery from abroad at two or three times the cost. Our domestic machinery manufacturers provide all services and solutions before and after the sale at a level at least as good as foreign manufacturers, and in some areas even better than them.