Vestel is a Turkish home and professional appliances manufacturing company, specializing electronics, major appliances and information technology. Together with its subsidiary brands, the company has a significant share in the European market of consumer electronics and home appliances. The company is very focused on innovation and the improvement of automation processes in their factories, and because of this, they were recently featured in a National Geographic special about mega factories.  
 
The Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV) is an organization whose aim is to support private sector Research and Development and technological innovation projects of Turkey. Since its inception in 1991, the Foundation has managed over 0.5 Billion USD in public funds through various programs.
 
At the upcoming Turkish-German Innovation Summit in Istanbul, the Global Success Club is proud to welcome Cengiz Ultav, Executive Board Member for Vestel and President of the TTGV, as a speaker on one of our panels. There he will discuss all about Industrie 4.0 in manufacturing, and the future of industry. To give all Summit participants a little taste of what is to come in his panel discussion, Mr. Ultav was kind enough to answer a few questions about Vestel and the future of Industrie 4.0 for us. Please enjoy the interview and be sure to find out more at the Summit on the 15th-16th of March.

 

GSC: Mr. Ultav, being that you are extremely involved in the development of technology in Turkey, as well as being a promonent figure in the company Vestel, could you please tell us what your future plans for Vestel are when it comes to Industrie 4.0? And also, how do you see the future of Industrie 4.0 in the country as a whole?
 

• Mr. Ultav: A very exiting decade is ahead of us. This time rather than increasing its internal energy, technology is going to tackle real world in a much more meaningful way, providing solutions and efficiencies that the Y and Z generations demand. From preventive medicine all the way to a still breathable atmosphere concrete technology solutions are being  formulated and built. These solutions to such complex problems require a very high level multi domain collaboration bringing parties with different capabilities into the magic triangle of digitalization, advanced materials and energy efficiency out of which the new efficiencies will flow through billions of IOT devices sorrounding thousands of new business models.
• Vestel is a major supplier to mainly EU as well as 152 countries around the world with more than 30 million consumer electronic devices including not only white and brown goods but also tablet computers and mobile phones. What makes Vestel successful in such a competitive environment is its differentiation and flexibility based capabilities. Vestel caters for EU demand for larger number of models and shipment size flexibility far ahead of its Far Eastern competitors. Vestel builds much larger number of models and ships a 100 or a100K order anywhere in the EU inside 3 days.
• This level of customization and flexibility is the anathema to competitiveness in the world of Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industrie 4.0 defining the Smart New World with smart cities, homes and individuals. Vestel is very well positioned in this new challenge.

 
GSC: Your company, Vestel, is a Turkish electronics manufacturer that strives to produce top quality products for your customers. In you opinion, how has the introduction of Industrie 4.0 applications in your facilities helped the company in delivering these products to customers?
 

• Mr. Ultav: As I have mentioned before Vestel is a global differentiator and flexible manufacturer. We are working hard to cope with even customer's personal level of customization requirements in the near future. This requires not only a complete upheaval of manufacturing floor to include new levels of digitalization, robotics, smartization but also to extend collaborative design capabilies strongly tied with the use of advanced world and atmosphere friendly materials in the most energy efficient ways. Vestel is putting a huge effort into mobilising its human and intellectual workforce in this respect. Vestel is simultaneously extending its ecosystem into young and bright minds through Vestel Ventures which has already invested in multiple early stage technology projects of young teams of entrepreneurs shaping the smart new world.

 
GSC: I recently saw that your company was featured in a National Geographic documentary about megafactories around the world. I want to congratulate you on this honor and I would also like to ask you, how does one go about setting up and managing such a megafactory? What are some of the basic principles behind operating such a huge facility and is there any advice you would give to other executives looking to expand their operations?
 

• Mr. Ultav: The story starts with working hard to put into reality the dreams of the founder of the Zorlu Group Mr. Ahmet Zorlu. His vision into becoming a global player in the competitive world of mainly European and Far Eastern competitors  was realized based on differentiation and flexibility strategies which were successfully executed and extended into information and mobile world. Mega factories with dedicated teams and global collaboration made it possible. A huge new potential is lying ahead in the Smart and Clean and Social New World with huge new challenges. We believe we are ready ro face off these challenges with our more efficient Mega Factories complemented with not only robotics  but smart and fast design, procurement, logistics and global cooperation and sharing. Extended ecosystem of ideas and young energy is being mobilized both internally and externally through Ventures initiative. Above all being a concrete contributor in any scale to this Smart New World is immensly exiting.

 
GSC: It is well known that the Vestel group is very determined to bettering the lives of the citizens of Turkey. We have heard of many projects that the company has taken part in to help the students and unemployeed workforece of the country. How important do you think it is for a company to invest in it's people like Vestel does?
 

• Mr. Ultav: Vestel believes in hard work and creativity with heart and soul of the individuals and peace and health of the communities supporting them. In especially these rapid, complex and cruel times of change, if these values are not embraced, of course there will be a lot of success stories but perhaps very few 100 year old successful sustainable companies that the society drives ahead. Vestel aims to continue to be a  sustainable global company  collaborating to generate real world technology solutions.
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GSC: We thank you for your taking time out of your busy day to speak with us and look forward to seeing you soon in Istanbul.