Şenmak Makina Sales Manager Bülent Ceyhan talked about the success they have achieved as a company and their targets for the next period.
We would like you to explain the structure of your company and your current business agenda. (product types, annual production capacity, facilities, number of employees, etc.)
Bülent Ceyhan: Our company, which was established in 1987, is the leading plastic processing equipment and screw barrel manufacturer in Turkey today.
As Şenmak, we have attached great importance to institutionalization and development since our establishment, and within this scope, we carefully determined the job and job descriptions by receiving consultancy and institutional support. We have determined the internal rules and guidelines. We determined the work flows and goals of the units. We created our corporate identity and corporate basic principles for branding. Our company, Şenmak, has a corporate structure consisting of 12 departments, employing a total of 94 people, 44 white collar and 50 blue collar.
We produce around 35 CNC and Universal chip removal machines in our facility with a total area of 6.250 m2.
By establishing the first R&D center of our country in our sector, we carry out activities to develop new raw materials and more efficient Plasticizing equipment.
Although the production of plasticizing equipment is our main field of activity, we also work on machine designs in this field.
Our center, which started its operations in 2018 and still continues to be the first and only R&D Center in the plastics processing machinery industry, is on the R&D 251+ list in the research of Turkey's Top R&D Spending Companies with an expenditure of 2 million 463 thousand TL in 2020. It is ranked 445th. In 2021, our R&D expenditure amount is 2 million 850 thousand TL.
The products we produce are used in the most functional processes of polymer processing machines that serve Automotive, White Goods, Construction, Agriculture, Textile, Energy Lines (Cable) and many other sectors with Plastic and Rubber raw material content.
We produce an average of 4 thousand sets of screw barrels per year. This number means 4 thousand production machines and 65% of our production is exported to the world's leading machinery manufacturers.
Growth and investment are the agenda of our company, which has grown by more than 50% last year.
What kind of firsts has your brand brought to our country in its field?
Bülent Ceyhan: Since the day it was founded, ŞENMAK has been a pioneer in many innovations, since it has been focused on continuous development and improvement. Since our products work mechanically, their strength properties require a high level of importance. In this context, our focus is on developing products with higher durability, longer life, more efficiency and high quality production.
Developed by our R&D center; ŞENMAK-N, ŞENMAK-N+, ŞENMAK-K, ŞENMAK-K+ and ŞENMAK-F, a screw coated with PTA welding powders becomes three times more durable than a screw undergoing traditional production processes. In this way, our primary privilege is the quality we offer to the market. In this sense, ŞENMAK has been a company that is constantly followed and imitated by its competitors.
Thanks to the know-how of working with the world's leading machinery manufacturers, the personnel we train contribute to the development of the sector. In this context, ŞENMAK pioneered the establishment and development of 5 sector companies within its body.
Can we learn about your business agenda and 2022 goals?
Bülent Ceyhan: Our company, which has achieved ambitious growth figures one after another, has had the chance to monitor the needs of the market more closely. With the confidence of these developments, our most important agenda for 2022 is manifested as both increasing the export figures and expanding our production facility.
Accordingly, we aim to increase our total production and export figures by at least 25 percent.
Our primary goal is to continuously increase this rate and to provide benefits for our company and our country. We continue our work with great motivation in order to add new customers from many countries of the world to our references. Our 2022 targets now include non-European markets and overseas countries.
Based on our experience, I can say that there are three main factors that we differentiate and achieve success in reaching our goals; quality, reasonable lead times and availability.
In addition to this, we have decided to invest in 2 new production processes that are not included in our company, and we have completed the contracts.
How is the decision to invest in a new production line, R&D, facility or technology? What kind of investment have you made recently?
Bülent Ceyhan: The biggest determining market is our customers. However, in order not to lag behind today's innovative and creative solutions, you must foresee. In other words, letting yourself go with the flow of life means falling behind your competitors. The business should not manage you, you should manage the business. This means anticipating customer expectations before the customer, researching and doing the necessary studies. This is exactly what ŞENMAK does. It participates in national and international fairs, conducts customer visits and consumer surveys, and realizes facility and technology investments by consolidating all these activities.
In 2021, we included two machines that are bottlenecks for our company in our production lines.
What incentives are there for production and how does your company benefit from it?
Bülent Ceyhan: As in our country, we benefit from the investment incentives of KOSGEB and the Ministry of Industry. We carry out our technological and productivity projects with the consultation of relevant institutions and academicians.
In your factory; Can you tell us about the production processes from raw material input to design and R&D studies, and from there to shipping?
Bülent Ceyhan: We manage all our processes with "Şenmak System". Thanks to the "Şenmak System" that we developed within our company in order to increase the production process and standardization, communication between all departments is provided through the system.
We can manage all processes with a single system. As a result, corporate resource planning and communication power within the company increase, and not only that, it also saves us a great deal of time.
Since our activities start with customer demands first, all technical specifications, technical drawings and production documents are prepared by the engineering team when the customer demand reaches our company. In addition, our raw material needs are determined at this stage.
Our Quality Assurance Plans, which are also prepared in the Engineering department, are directed to the relevant departments through our "Şenmak System" erp program that we have developed within our company.
Our Quality Assurance Plans, consisting of 5 stages, are implemented as follows;
1 - Input Control
2 - Process Control
3 - Focused Control
4 - Random Control
5 - Final Check
Our Process controls, which we carry out at every stage of our production and by recording in the electronic environment, are secured with our Final control application.
What kind of methods and systems are used for quality production with zero downtime / zero error? Which automation hardware and software technologies do you use mostly?
Bülent Ceyhan: We use 3 different information systems in our company;
· Internationally used CAD and CAM in our R&D and Engineering departments
(Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Machining) programs
· ERP system for Production and Planning management
· Inspection Manager (Quality Control System) for Quality Assurance
Our information systems management is carried out within our organization by considering the needs of our business and is constantly updated according to the needs.
Could you give information about your machine park and tell us about the investments you have made in this field and the advantages it provides in the last period?
Bülent Ceyhan: Our Machine Park; CNC controlled Turning, CNC milling, CNC Deep Hole Drilling, CNC Honing, CNC Grinding Machines Welding Machines and various Universal machining machines.
Some of the most important features that make our company stand out are; Turning up to Ø320 mm in Ø20 mm, drilling and honing up to 5000 mm, one-piece screw production up to 8500 mm and cylindrical grinding operations. These dimensions are beyond many of our competitors in Turkey and Europe.
What kind of hardware and software do you use to speed up the operation processes and ensure the right shipment in your warehouses?
Bülent Ceyhan: We provide our warehouse management with a sub-software that we have developed within the scope of "Şenmak System" developed within our company and that can meet all needs. The FIFO principle is used in order to keep both product stocks and operating materials up-to-date.
What is your vision for the Digital Transformation of the Industry? Can you tell us about your pilot applications, if any?
Bülent Ceyhan: Most of the products we manufacture at Şenmak contain the know-how of our customers. For this reason, information security and reliability are at the forefront for us. While we guarantee confidentiality to all our customers in this regard, we also keep them in our system. All of our customers know that we work with the principle of high confidentiality, we always give a guarantee. The circulation of printed technical information in our company has been reduced to "0", with some exceptions. We manage all operations with our Tablet and PC applications. Thus, we save time while keeping the information up-to-date, secure and reliable.