An overview of the relationship between engineers and machinery in our country

As a person who has been in this business for over 50 years, I should regret to say that; The situation of our country in machine production is not at all pleasant. When I look around as a mechanical engineer; I cannot say “This machine, tool and equipment is ours”.

Countries in the world where machinery is produced are generally called “developed countries”. Considering that machines are tools produced to facilitate human life, it is a natural result that their production will continue. When we look at the diversity of machines in terms of number and type in our world, it is quite complex to classify them categorically. However, those directly related to human; Automobile, bicycle, fabric loom, paper punch, soil plow and the like can be grouped into one group. Others are those that are produced and used to produce them; all kinds of machine tools, mineral processing machines and the like. It is also possible to collect food production, packaging machines and the like in another group and increase the variety in this way.

Machine producers and institutions are grouped according to their specialization.

Due to this diversity, people and institutions that produce machinery are grouped according to their specialization. As we know, these specialized groups differ by their name or brand, even; Renault Cars, Fiat Cars etc. as.

It is not possible to say the number of machines produced in 1 year in the world. However, if it is necessary to give an example; It has been confirmed that 70-80 million units of internal combustion engines were produced in 2018.

The production of these machines is carried out by various professional groups, especially mechanical engineers. Functionality, ergonomics, sufficient robustness, sufficient life; but being cheap as everyone can afford constitutes the basic production principles. Since millions of pieces are produced and sold, it can be said that the manufacturing companies comply with these principles.

The situation of our country is not at all heartwarming

After this brief information, let’s take a look at the situation of machine production in our country. As a person who has been in this business for over 50 years, I should regret to say that; The situation of our country is not at all heartwarming. When I look around as a mechanical engineer; I cannot say “This machine, tool and equipment is ours”. I am of the opinion that even the fact that some household appliances have Turkish proper names does not change this fact. All the machines used to manufacture these household appliances and the like were imported from “developed countries”.

When I look at “Why is my country in this situation”, I see the only responsible mechanical engineers and the system that trains them. Those who finance for production have no blame on this.
Peki, ne yapmalıyız da rahmetli Necmettin Erbakan hocanın “Biz mühendis değil, ithalat memuru” yetiştiriyoruz dediği gerçeği ters çevirebilelim. Elektronikçiler ve mekatronikçiler yol almaktadırlar. Aselsan ve TAİ örneklerinde olduğu gibi, savunma sanayii müesseseleri çok ilerlemişlerdir. Savunma sanayiinin bu gelişimine biz makine mühendisleri ayak uyduramamaktayız. Nihâi makinelerin ana organları olan içten yanmalı motorlar ve aktarma organları konularında gelişme olamamaktadır.

Well, what should we do? Let’s reverse the fact that the late Necmettin Erbakan said, “We are training import officers, not engineers”. Electronics and mechatronicists are on the way. As in the examples of Aselsan and TAI, defense industry establishments have advanced a lot. We, mechanical engineers, cannot keep up with this development of the defense industry. There has been no progress on internal combustion engines and powertrains, which are the main organs of final machines.

Machine production starts with design

Solution; First of all, it educates engineers who have acquired the training of working together / collectively, who love their profession and believe in the need for continuous improvement, who work hard, but share the revenue obtained, and are aware that every product it produces is not the most perfect, but that it is necessary to do more perfect. Secondly, these engineers should know that; Production of a machine starts with design. If the correct design complies with the “basic production principles”, it is said “the product is on the right track”. Another principle of correct design is to do ‘Benchmarking’. The purpose of this; is to find the superior aspects of other similar products that exist in the same subjects but have become famous and apply them to their design. The contribution of process engineers and financiers is an absolute must for the design to be completed. The machine whose design has been completed will be “the first product to be worked on and developed for mass production”.

Serious studies are carried out on the first product produced, and it is made suitable for “basic production principles”. We call this intensive and intense as well as costly work “R&D work” in short.

The next step is to produce the product under mass production conditions. Besides engineering; These issues, which require business and business management expertise, marketing expertise, finance management expertise, location, machinery and equipment, are generally beyond the subject of mechanical engineers. However, engineers who are producing machinery should know that; With the “Product Life Cycle”, which foreigners call “PLC (Product Life Cycle)” and these principles, the production and development of the product never ends, it continues continuously.