Can we get to know you?
I'm Bahadir Tavusbay. I graduated from St Pulcherie French High School and then Sabancı University Industrial Department. I have been working in the Mold Design / R&D department at Uğur Metal for about 3 years.

Could you give some information about your company and its activities?
Starting with 4 casting machines in 2009, Uğur Metal made wise investments in this developing industry and reached 21 HDPC machines. Uğur Metal, which consists of managers, engineers and technical personnel and has more than 40 employees, is constantly developing new products and designs. I am also working on mold design and production in our company. In addition, I played an active role in the Molding Room investment we made in the last year.

When did your paths cross with your company?
Uğur metal is our family company. After graduating from university, I started to work actively in our company.

Could you give information about the organizational structure of your company?
Our company is a family business with 3 partners. As it is a family business, the interaction brings together the experiences of the previous generation and the innovative perspective of the new generation. It provides processes that we are advancing with solid but new steps.

Which sectors do you serve?
We serve the white goods, automotive, machinery, electronics and defense industries.

Can you talk about your export rates and which country you export to the most?  
Our export rate constitutes approximately 30% of our total production. The country to which we export the most is Germany.

What are the features that set you apart from your competitors?
Since our establishment, we have been advancing by giving serious importance to R&D studies. We develop special solutions by improving our understanding of service with innovative ideas and approaches. We believe that innovation is the key to development in the rapidly developing and changing global world.

Can we get information about your new investment and R&D efforts?
Our primary goal is to improve our molding room investment, which we have just made, and we also want to speed up the robot automation works in our company.

With the pandemic and the war, how was the year 2022?
As in the whole country, in parallel with the expectations, while progressing in its normal course in the first year, there were serious delays due to the effect of Covid-19. In particular, the production stops in the domestic and European automotive industry had a significant impact on the industry. Again, the problems experienced in the logistics sector, the rise in energy costs, price instability and periodic problems at the point of supply are our common problems as well as the problems of the metal casting industry.

What are your projections and risk factors for 2023?
However, the fact that the natural gas shortage that will be experienced in Europe for 2023 is not experienced at the same level in Turkey may bring Turkey to a much more important position for the casting industry. Production costs and exchange rate increases are among the points we are worried about in terms of our industry.

How do you see the development of Industry 4.0 in Turkey?  Do you have any projects or precautions regarding digitalization?
Industry 4.0 is a serious development in production engineering. Although it is believed to be necessary, there is no set standard on how to make this transformation.  In addition to the high investment cost, software and robotic applications are studies that require technical expertise.  It should be considered as an opportunity for many companies like us. While we are planning our steps, we are actually moving in this direction.  We make decisions in accordance with the 4.0 transformation in the investments we have made.