Interview with İbrahim Doğangün, Founding Member and Chairman of the Board of TÜYİDER

In this interview, TÜYİDER (Association of All Surface Treatment Processes) Founding Member and Board Chairman İbrahim Doğangün answered our questions. Doğangün provided information about TÜYİDER's establishment process and its activities. [caption id="attachment_104555" align="aligncenter"] İbrahim Doğangün[/caption]

Could you briefly introduce yourself to our readers, your educational background and professional experience?

I am a graduate of the Business Administration Department (English preparatory) from Kayseri Erciyes University. I have been active in the sector since 1992. I founded Etis Industrial Metal Coating Facilities Ltd. in 2001 and Bodoplast Plastic Technologies Inc. in 2012. I established GÖRSİAD (Görükle Business Association) in 2010 and served as its Founding Chairman from 2010 to 2019. I continue my business career as Board Chairman at Etis and Bodoplast. I am a founding member of TÜYİDER and currently serve as Board Chairman.

TÜYİDER (Association of All Surface Treatment Processes) is an extremely active association despite being newly established. Could you provide information about TÜYİDER's establishment process and the events and training programs planned for the coming periods?

The foundations of our Association of Surface Treatment Processes were laid on 21 December 2019. We received our founding document on 28 January 2020. On behalf of our Association Founders and Founding Board Members, we wish our association to be beneficial and auspicious for our country and all our colleagues in the sector, and we hereby extend an invitation to our entire sector to contribute and provide greater support, whether individually or institutionally. As the Association of Surface Treatment Processes in Turkey, alongside building strong awareness about the sector, we aim to establish, develop, sustain and promote national and international cooperation, quality standards and all necessary disciplines. For this purpose, we plan to establish working groups and commissions (finance commission, press commission, organization commission, etc.), and also conduct joint work with all chambers of commerce, academic institutions, universities and vocational high schools. Right after our association was established, we contacted the relevant university departments in April and created our Scientific Advisory Board. Professors from ITU, Yeditepe, Sakarya, Kocaeli and Selçuk Demirel universities became members of our Scientific Board. Our "Surface Academy" project, planned within the scope of our Scientific Advisory Board, is among our most important initiatives. The first event of the Surface Academy will be sectoral training programs to be launched shortly. Subsequently, we have begun work to establish a comprehensive surface testing laboratory that will meet all testing needs of our sector through development agencies and European Union projects. This center has been planned as an important attraction point where testing services and R&D activities will be conducted. We place great importance on our Surface Academy project in order to truly provide industry-university cooperation. The pandemic has negatively affected all sectors. However, through online meetings and webinars made possible by technology, sector professionals have been able to communicate with each other. In this context, could you provide information about what type of events TÜYİDER has organized, what topics were highlighted at these events? We believe we have made the best use of the pandemic period. During these difficult times, we took very important steps towards gaining new members, implementing our association's strategic plans, and establishing the Scientific Board that we mentioned in the previous answer. The support of both our board members and sector stakeholders during this process is unforgettable. We sincerely thank all of them. During the pandemic period, we held web-based meetings with our board at least 3 days per week. In addition, we held regular monthly board meetings. We organized 8 very successful webinars on our sector. By inviting important figures from our sector and our members to these webinars, we held highly motivated meetings. We conducted successful cooperation meetings via the web with many associations and NGOs. We are trying to act with awareness of how much importance NGOs and sectoral associations have gained in the coming period. As another important matter, we completed our TÜYİDER Magazine project, which will be published digitally in its first issue, and our TÜYİDER CARD project with many advantages for our members. With the card we will soon begin distributing to our members, we will put into circulation a card that will provide significant discounts in many areas.

The pandemic has accelerated companies' digital transformation. What kind of measures did firms in the surface treatment and coating sectors take in this context, what kind of revisions did they implement in their operations? Do you think that other sectors that have business relations with the surface treatment sector are sufficiently adapting to this digital transformation? Could you share your views and suggestions?

Our sector stakeholders, like many organizations due to the pandemic, rapidly implemented physical measures and requirements in their operations. They tried to overcome the situation by creating different work arrangements and methods in the most efficient way according to reduced working hours and new working conditions, and continue to do so. We know that many of our stakeholders have begun using remote work models by utilizing digitalization opportunities. Beyond the measures, our association worked to shed light on our sector through webinars regarding sectoral business changes and the use of new technologies related to production during and after the pandemic period. Our "Covid-19 and Surface Solutions in Industry" webinar was an important, mind-opening presentation in this sense. Our presentations are always available on our YouTube channel. The pandemic period we are currently in and similar extraordinary periods that may confront all of us in the future have demonstrated the applicability of new technologies, new working models that may emerge in business life, and how important surface treatments are in daily life. As is known, obtaining antibacterial/antimicrobial surfaces falls entirely within the working scope of the surface treatment sector. For this reason, our sector and all dependent sectors will rapidly adapt to the process. As is known, our country, given its interests and structure, adapts very rapidly to new technologies. We believe these characteristics will be reflected positively on enterprises. Additionally, we are aware that we must clearly identify our shortcomings in this matter and develop correct strategies to address them. Our association is prepared to fulfill all responsibilities in this regard. Since finding the right path together and working transparently are among our main objectives, we want to hear everyone's participation and suggestions. TÜYİDER reiterates here that it is a civil society organization that believes in participatory approaches. The surface treatment sector is a rapidly developing and expanding sector and a very important component of the industrial production process. What are the significant technological developments that have occurred in recent years in the surface treatment sector, and what are your comments? What kind of changes and innovations do you foresee happening in our country and globally after the pandemic, and could you share your predictions? The Surface Treatment Sector is extremely dynamic and, due to the sectors it serves such as automotive and defense industry, must work with high standards on a daily basis. Facilities and production technologies based on robotics and automation are gaining importance in our sector every day. Demands and quality expectations continue to keep our sector current in this respect. Our sector has been rapidly gaining ground in foreign markets in recent years. Particularly in nearby countries, extremely modern facilities are being established by Turkish firms. In this sense, our association addresses the activities our sector can undertake to gain new markets at the highest level. Every lira our country gains through exports will be everyone's gain. Regarding localization, all R&D activities being conducted and to be conducted in our country are monitored by our association, addressed within the scope of our Scientific Board and Surface Academy, and presented to our sector. These activities will continue to increase.