Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your educational background and professional background?
I was born in Izmir in 1977 and studied in Istanbul. I graduated from Boğaziçi University Mechanical Engineering Department in 2000 and completed my master’s degree at Boğaziçi University on Industrial Engineering and Technology Management.
During my professional career of 19 years; I started in the Production Planning Department at Hoşdere Bus Plant of Mercedes-Benz Türk A.Ş., I acted as an Executive in production planning, plant and nvestment planning and lean production office.
After working as project manager for the new generation Travego and Tourismo vehicles from 2012 to 2017, I have been working as the R&D Director Responsible from Interior Bus Development at Hoşdere R&D Center since the beginning of 2018.
Mercedes-Benz Türk is 52 years old. What is your opinion about Mercedes-Benz? Support to the Turkey’s automotive industry?
As Mercedes-Benz Türk, we are one of the largest foreign- capital companies in Turkey with an investment of more than 1.2 billion Euro. With our headquarters in Hadımköy, Istanbul, our bus plant in Hoşdere, and our truck plant in Aksaray city, we employ around 7.000 people and we support the development of Turkish economy.
As a brand operating in the Turkish market approximately for 52 years, we continue steering the automotive world, making a difference in various segments with Mercedes-Benz models available in the market, and improving ourselves.
In addition to selling our products, we carry on our investments in Turkey at full speed from service to used vehicles, sales to finance, and corporate social responsibility projects to sports and arts projects.
The plants of Mercedes-Benz Türk, which produce intercity and municipal buses at the Hoşdere Bus Plant in Istanbul; medium heavy- and heavy-duty trucks and tow trucks at the Aksaray Truck Plant, constitute an important part of Daimler AG’s development and production network.
The company has an important role in domestic sales and export of products, including the models produced in Turkey. Mercedes-Benz Türk is also among the leading companies of the automotive industry by importing and selling Mercedes-Benz brand light commercial vehicles, as well as all the automobile brands under Daimler AG.
Could you please talk about your plants and production technologies?
Established in 1995, our Hoşdere Bus Plant is engaged in production of buses for the domestic market in Turkey, as well as in exporting them to the entire world. Our plant is also the largest integrated bus plant among the bus production facilities of Daimler AG.
Thanks to the plant that has produced more than 85.000 buses to date, Mercedes-Benz Türk produces one of every two buses in Turkey. We are producing Travego, Intouro, Tourismo and Setra UL Business models as intercity bus models, and Conecto Solo and Articulated Conecto (with diesel and gas options) city bus models at the Hoşdere Bus Plant.
Used at the Hoşdere Bus Plant, the cataphoresis facility (KTL), which is of great importance for the vehicle quality and offering an outstanding protection against corrosion, is a first in Turkey in bus production. The plant also features a Cogeneration Center meeting its own electrical energy needs.
The plant continues to be an exemplary facility in terms of environmental protection with the technology used, special measures taken, treatment units and alternative energy solutions. A multi-storey central battery charging area has also been put into use with an investment of 1 million Euro at the Hoşdere Bus Plant.
With this area, our company has achieved an efficiency of up to 100 percent in terms of charge capacity and replacement times. As a first in Turkey, Mercedes-Benz Türk is able to manage the battery replacement operation of the stacking machines very quickly and effectively with the special roller shelf system and the battery replacement lift available in the area.
Thanks to this new project, the carbon footprint of the plant’s battery charging processes has been reduced by up to 25 percent.
In which countries are your production centers and factories located?
As Mercedes-Benz Türk, we have two plants at Hoşdere and Aksaray in Turkey, and our headquarters is located at Hadımköy. Daimler AG continues its production and sales activities in many countries, particularly in Germany.
As the “Brand Inventing Automobile” in 1886,we maintain our pioneering identity by using the latest technologies and production facilities in all branches in this field.
As Mercedes-Benz, what are your activities on Industry 4.0?
Our Industry 4.0 related activities are actually a neverending process. As a company, we have taken pioneering steps in this integration with our ongoing investments for years. Industry 4.0 is of a particular interest to the automotive sector.
In order to adapt to this process, we, as Mercedes-Benz Türk, implement our Industry 4.0 projects by creating a strong infrastructure in the production units of our company and in the Hoşdere R&D Center. This is not a process that would end within a certain period, and it would not be right to say that we have completed it.
While fulfilling the requirements of Industry 4.0, we are also starting with the preparations for the next stage. At this point, “data”, in other words “information” is the fuel of our age. We use BIG DATA in all our operations. We collected around 10 TB of data only in 2018 and only in bus road tests.
In this digital process, our engineers take the available data and perform the necessary improvements. Meanwhile, our physical changes also continue. It is now possible that an engineer in Turkey come together with R&D engineers in different locations all over the world simultaneously in a virtual or semi-virtual environment.
This increases our production speed and efficiency, and reduces the costs. One of our biggest goals as a company is to integrate our customers, vehicles and the entire process chain in a way different than today with the digital technologies we have implemented in our company.
Could you please tell about your R&D Centers and Global IT Solutions Center in Aksaray and Hoşdere?
In addition to the production operations we carry out in Turkey as Mercedes-Benz Türk, we increase our importance day by day in the global R&D network with our R&D activities. Attaching an importance to R&D activities since the very first day it was established, our company has officially gained R&D Center status in 2009.
Mercedes-Benz Türk’s R&D engineers actively take place in the bus and truck R&D activities under Daimler. The state-of-the-art systems used in the plants are also used in the R&D center, and all the activities are carried out as integrated and simultaneously with the entire world.
Thus, it is possible to collaborate with the other engineers at the Daimler facilities in international standards and enjoy the power of the resulting synergy. Parts and vehicles are approved after a series of tests and are used around the world.
Mercedes-Benz Türk’s Hoşdere R&D Center produces R&D service in Turkey and exports to the world. Mercedes-Benz Türk also has a second R&D Center at the Aksaray Truck Plant, which was commissioned in 2018 and assumes global responsibilities for the truck product group.
We have a very assertive position globally thanks to this R&D center providing the final road test approvals for all Mercedes-Benz trucks in the world. Our plant also has a special status in Daimler’s global network with the services provided by Daimler’s Global IT Services Center and the activities carried out by the R&D Center.
The Global IT Services Center, which was established at the Hoşdere Bus Plant with an investment of more than 4 million Euro after Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz Türk, has positioned Turkey as one of the information technologies bases, has celebrated its fifth year in December 2018.
The Global IT Solutions Center provides information technologies and expertise services to more than 40 countries from Germany to Japan. In the “Turkey’s 500 Top Service Exporters” list of the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM) announced at the end of 2018, Mercedes-Benz Türk was selected as one of the top three companies in the Architecture,
Engineering and Technical Category. With a service export of around 80 million dollars within the scope of these two R&D Centers located at the Aksaray Truck Plant and the Hoşdere Bus Plant, as well as the services carried out at the Global IT Solutions Center of Daimler, Mercedes-Benz Türk has become one of the top three companies in the list.
Could you please tell about your sustainability activities?
Our company continues to comply with the environmental protection efficiency regulations of Daimler, and to lead the automotive industry by continuously reducing the environmental effects of its facilities with a sense of responsibility and by carrying on the improvement efforts.
Awarded with the Environmental Management System certificate during the recent years, Mercedes-Benz Türk realizes the required investments after identifying the areas that require improvement and the saving potentials available through the regular reports issued by the Energy Management Team consisted of experts with certificates required by the relevant regulation.
With the Waste Management System, the “hazardous” and “non-hazardous” wastes at the Hoşdere Bus Plant and Aksaray Truck Plant are collected at the place they arise and are sent to disposal.
With this method, the transportation of wastes within the plant becomes easier and more space is gained in the central waste area in the plant site. Mercedes-Benz Türk has invested more than 1.000.000 Euro to the Hoşdere Bus Plant and more than 700.000 Euro to the Aksaray Truck Plant for waste management.
With the new waste collection concept at the Aksaray Truck Plant, we achieved a waste recycling rate of more than 95% by correctly separating the wastes. Electricity, heating and cooling water are obtained by using natural gas through the “Trigeneration Facility” established at the Hoşdere Bus Plant, which aims to use energy more efficiently and to prevent the negative environmental impacts that may arise due to power cuts.
This system allows meeting 100% of the electricity requirement, 40% of the heat requirement in winter and some part of the cooling requirement for air conditioning purposes during summer.
As a result of all these efforts, an energy saving of more than 30% has been obtained per vehicle within the scope of the energy efficiency activities carried out at the Mercedes-Benz Türk Hoşdere Bus Plant since 2007, and the CO2 emissions have been reduced by 10.000 metric tons annually.
How many people are employed in your bus R&D center?
There are 211 employees under 21 units under “Bus Development” at our Hoşdere R&D Center. 16% of the Bus Development Department consists of female engineers, while 34% of the employees have a master’s degree.
What are the global responsibilities of Mercedes- Benz Türk in the field of Bus R&D?
We carry out a wide range of R&D efforts for the buses. These efforts include bodywork, exterior equipment, aerodynamic calculations, interior equipment, interior lighting concepts, documentations, electrical comfort systems, cable harnesses and diagnostics, resistance and long-distance road tests. We also export engineering from
Hoşdere to the whole world. We develop all the scopes we have just mentioned at our headquarters and then assume responsibility for all the vehicles manufactured at Daimler’s factories in Mannheim, Ulm and Ligny.
Where do you perform the bus road tests?
All test vehicles are tested 24/7 for more than a year under any kind of weather and road conditions at four different locations including the plateaus of Erzurum at a height of 2.000 meters and a temperature of -30 degrees during winter, the Taurus Mountains and İzmir region with a temperature of +40 degrees during summer, and
around Istanbul and the Thrace Region during spring. The vehicles are used in every region on various road types such as highways, urban roads, intermediate roads, the most challenging ramps and heavy traffic, and all the limits of vehicles are challenged with different test scenarios.
Do you also perform electric bus tests?
Yes, eCitaro’s road tests are performed in Turkey. R&D activities in this field are performed at Hoşdere Bus Plant. We completed the summer tests of eCitaro and the winter tests were completed in Erzurum.
How do you carry out the road tests in digital environment?
We perform some road tests through a system called Hidropuls. Recognized as the most advanced R&D test, Hidropuls provides all the coverage to be tested for the vehicles.
In this test where the parameters of different types of road routes are entered, we run the test to make the bus mileage a million km. In other words, we run a simulation to see what kind of problems and malfunctions may arise on what part of the vehicle after a mileage of one million km.
This test takes about 2 weeks. Only in 2018, we carried out more than 3,200 hours of Hidropuls tests on our newly developed products. This corresponds to a road test of 11.000.000 km.
Could you please tell us about the firsts of your R&D center?
We are the first to develop the roof concept and textile air duct for new city buses of Daimler globally. In this way, we provided both lightness and practicality, as well as brought the center of gravity closer to the ground. We also achieved logistics efficiency thanks to these textile air ducts that are further modular.
We took a step further in this R&D activity by producing our models with textile coated roof for CNG buses. The operating costs of the vehicle have been reduced following this R&D activity where we provided a further lightness up to 40 percent.
With the Remote Bus App, another innovation by us, we ensured that the bus functions are controlled remotely for the very first time. Within the scope of the Remote Bus App 1.0, information on various points such as mileage, temperature, fuel and adblue level, tire pressure, on/off status of the doors and boot lid etc. are provided to the
driver, and this data is updated instantly. Similarly, tire pressure, tire temperature and tire sensor’s battery status are shown in detail for each tire on the bus. In addition to this, status and locking status of the doors, lids and luggage compartments can be monitored from the app in order to inform the driver in case of a possible situation.
