Interview with Emin Yılmaz, General Manager of VIG Makina

VIG Makina has been providing innovative solutions in paint shop systems and many other fields in machine manufacturing facilities since 1991. In the interview we conducted, VIG Makina General Manager Emin Yılmaz provided information about the company's areas of activity and the products they offer.

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

My name is Emin Yılmaz. First of all, I would like to thank you for this interview. I am married and a father of two children. I am a mechanical engineer. 27 of my 30 years of working life have been spent working in various paint shops and paint shop projects. Currently, I serve as General Manager at VIG Makina.

Could you provide information about VIG Makina's establishment process and areas of activity?

VIG Makina is a family company founded in 1991 by Vedat Güngören and İnci Güngören. Its main areas of activity are turnkey paint shop and aluminium foundry line projects. These projects begin with design, continue with production, and conclude with installation and commissioning. VIG Makina manages these processes with competent and experienced human resources in three offices and production facilities in different locations. Over its more than 30-year history since its establishment, VIG Makina is a company that aims to add value to its country and customers through paint shop projects it has carried out in the automotive industry, defense industry, aviation, railway and general industry sectors, as well as aluminium foundry line projects it has carried out domestically and internationally. [caption id="attachment_156320" align="aligncenter"] VIG Makina General Manager Emin Yılmaz[/caption]

Could you provide information about the products and services offered by VIG Makina? What sectors are among your target industries?

VIG Makina produces turnkey projects in the automotive industry, defense industry, aviation, railway and general industry sectors, encompassing all processes and related equipment. We are pleased to be involved in projects where we can add value regardless of sector differentiation. To provide details, we carry out projects including parts of paint processes such as surface treatment and electrocoat lines, primer and topcoat paint booths, their furnaces and heating units, blast cabinets, sanding, sealer, wax and other process work cabinets and related equipment, paint, sealer and blasting robots, paint preparation rooms, combination paint booths, process ventilation units, conveyor technology for these systems, customized to our customers' requests and the dimensions of parts/units/bodies to be processed, including electrical and automation work. For these systems, data collection and monitoring of process data in accordance with Industry 4.0 principles, and adding this data to vehicle/part information are performed according to customer requests. Upon request, we can also perform paint shop simulations using our own resources. Sustainability regarding the environment is very important to us in the projects we undertake. On this matter, we inform our customers about recent developments, provide necessary solutions and make efforts to ensure the project progresses correctly from an environmental perspective. In fact, in one project, we developed a special solution using a special mud separation technique to dewater the sludge formed in water scrubbers by a minimum of 95 percent, remove it in dry form and take it away from the system. In our robot workshop, we fit the application equipment of robots to be used in projects, conduct preliminary setup and tests. We provide engineering and consulting services not only domestically, but also to our customers abroad through our sales and engineering office in Germany. Since our subject is paint shops, I will not go into details regarding aluminium foundry lines.

Could you provide information about your company's domestic and international activities?

In previous years, we have completed turnkey bus and truck paint shops, welding workshops both domestically and internationally, and fully automatic paint shops we have established in the defense industry. In addition, we carry out all maintenance services in the paint shop of an OEM company producing buses in Poland. As of this year, all of our ongoing operations are again with OEM companies. To summarize our ongoing domestic operations: a fully automatic paint shop for the defense industry, an E/Coat line for buses and trucks, a parts paint shop for buses, robotic and dry scrubber paint booths for buses and the defense industry, and various add-on and improvement projects large and small. Our ongoing operations abroad can be summarized as three surface treatment and E/Coat projects in two different European countries. At the same time, we provide engineering and consulting services to OEM companies in various parts of the world regarding paint shops and energy efficiency.

Could we learn about the work you carry out at VIG Makina in the fields of innovation and R&D?

Our engineers develop our R&D and design projects in a total area of 300 m² across four offices. Our manufacturing is not mass production. The production of every R&D and design project we commercialize is carried out in our workshops. Our company's software and hardware infrastructure has been established to carry out R&D and design projects. We obtain registrations of the designs we have made, and we make useful model and patent applications for our special projects. As a recent example, we obtained a useful model for our dry scrubber design in a project we carried out in the aviation sector. We actively maintain university-industry collaborations and develop projects under support programs such as joint TUBITAK projects with universities. We place importance on intellectual property rights and personnel development. To strengthen our company's R&D, design and innovation culture and to encourage our personnel, we have established a reward system that provides rewards when activities such as beginning master's and doctorate education, completing theses, publishing papers at national/international conferences/symposiums/congresses, publishing full-text research articles in international peer-reviewed journals and R&D and design project ideas are carried out.

What are included in VIG Makina's future investment plans? Would you share your investment priorities with our readers?

Since its establishment, our company has been a company that values its employees and prioritizes employee development. Among the matters we place importance on is preparing our human resources for future projects. Another matter we attach importance to is increasing our production capacity by developing our machinery with technological equipment. In addition to these, digitalization work is ongoing in our company. VIG Makina, prioritizing customer satisfaction and keeping up with technology, continuously develops itself and continues to grow with confident steps through its approach to human resources, innovation and environmental sensitivity.