The launch meeting of the “Industrial Competency Assessment and Support Project” (EYDEP) was initiated by the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries.  The purpose is to render companies active in industry as qualified suppliers for the defense industry.  Execution of situation analyses and building development plans was held in Ankara with the participation of Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, Minister of National Defense Nurettin Canikli, Undersecretary for Defense Prof. İsmail Demir and many invitees.

Taking the floor at the launch meeting, Undersecretary for Defense Prof. İsmail Demir stated that the EYDEP program is not considered a grant or support, and instead the aim of the program is to gain new players to the defense industry and thus form a robust supply chain. Prof. Demir continued, “We have to increase the quality in the defense industry and become a country manufacturing indigenous products worldwide. In order to achieve this, we have to reach the level of excellence. Our companies used to have difficulty in launching this vision, so we provided training and consultancy to this end and reached the following conclusion as a result of our assessments: We need to evaluate whether our companies are players on global scale or not. We have to identify their inadequacies and clarify which type of support, training and consultancy needs to be provided. We wanted to provide support in areas of equipment or software and we took concrete steps to this end with this launch meeting. We trained our supervisors within the scope of the EYDEP program and they reached the competency to supervise our companies. This program will continue to grow and extend with the participation of organized industrial sites and clusters. Our main industry companies, even the global defense industry companies will be able to build long term business relationships with the help of this program. We hope to create a competent sub-industry, sub-system manufacturers and a growing global defense industry of companies in Turkey.”

Minister of National Defense Nurettin Canikli expressed that the product groups with high added value are mostly within the scope of defense industry and added, “In addition to the conventional products, we should develop, manufacture innovative products with high added value that could be sold with higher prices and introduce them to the world market. We have to build a structure that is capable of producing the defense industry products manufactured and developed in Turkey, from their sub-systems to their components in the most micro level. There are cases where one of our defense industry companies has to develop a micro component from scratch that was previously developed by another company as part of a defense industry company. All these from the micro level to system level should be defined jointly, their characteristics should be identified and eventually a joint data repository should be formed. In order to have comprehensive knowledge, we have to have a good command of all details.”

Prime Minister: “The budget allocated to the EYDEP Program has to be increased”

In his speech at the ceremony, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım mentioned that the world has entered a new era where Industry 4.0 and virtual reality are at the forefront and added that if Turkey achieves a rapid transition into the Industry 4.0 concept in the production area, it may be able to increase its added value minimum 2.5 times. Underlining that according to their 10-year projection, $60 billions of business volume and 600 projects are expected, Yıldırım stated that while executing these projects, they need to form competent companies and a strong defense industry eco-system. Emphasizing the importance of identification of the inadequacies and their fulfillment in respect of building companies that are competent in their areas of activity, Yıldırım underlined that the support provided to this end and the budget allocated to this Project should absolutely be increased.

In his presentation, Bilal Aktaş - Head of the Industrialization Department of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries remarked: “The EYDEP aims to assess companies in order to prepare the industrial competencies of defense industry companies and support the development of the companies in line with these assessments. This program was prepared based on the development criteria identified for domestic and foreign main contractors and subcontractors. The assessment results will be shared with all shareholders via the portal established. Identification of the technology and subsystems that are aimed to be gained by our country in the upcoming period for the owners of technology and subsystems for a sustainable defense industry, determination of the strategic aims and targets for each industry by setting visions for the future in respect of the industry and identification of the activities to be accomplished to realize such targets are included in the defense industry’s industrial strategy document. The EYDEP schematic will also be used in the realization of the activities contained by the defense industry strategy document. The objective of the EYDEP assessment is composed of the preparation of the competency inventory, its rating and reporting to the shareholders. Our support topics are consisted of certification, R&D and patent management, institutionalization, documentation activity, mentorship and training. Through this program, every company’s manufacturing of a unique, indigenous product, indigenization of critical products which are difficult to import, production in international standards and their competition in international market are aimed. A budget of 50 million TL was allocated for the execution of the EYDEP processes, and upon today’s directive of our Prime Minister this amount will increase further. We believe that EYDEP will at the same time act as leverage for the coordination of the industry with governmental institutions that provide support.”

Sharing critical information also on the evaluation and approval processes Aktaş continued: “The process regarding evaluation, starting with the companies registered to the defense industrialization portal - but not limited to them - is composed of collection of the demands of the companies wishing to pass through the EYDEP supervision process, assignment of the supervisors who will be conducting the supervision and assessment, planning, visits, assessment and preparation of the assessment reports. The assessment survey sets are composed of five different survey sets varying on the activity areas of the companies. Their content and titles have a flexible structure that may be changed depending on the industry. General and common queries are directed to all industries; and the questions in the subcategories related with the analysis of production competency, design competency, software competency, production - design competency and system competency provide us great advantages in getting a clear picture of the company.”

Bilal Aktaş “Involvement of 100 more supervisors are planned for inclusion in the 2018 program”

Stating that within the scope of the EYDEP program, 110 supervisors from 6 industry companies and the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries and Ministry of Defense were trained up to date, Aktaş said, “110 supervisors were trained on a total of 17 subjects. 60 courses were provided, and these supervisors were trained by 25 trainers. The participation level in the courses was 85% and 60 companies were visited by groups of a minimum of five people in order to conduct common assessments by 110 supervisors. When their training is completed, we plan to include 100 additional supervisors in this program in 2018 as well.”

Evaluating that the most concrete output of the EYDEP program was the report, Aktaş continued his speech: “On account of the EYDEP report, the companies will be able to see their strengths and weaknesses. In addition to this, opportunity analysis, capability matrix, potential products to be indigenized, special products, technology and investment areas in the defense industry and the radar graphics to be shared with the company will be covered in this report. The support model will be approved by the EYDEP high council with the requirement analyses of the companies upon the collection of the assessment reports and service procurement will be made through a contract signed by SSTEK which is an affiliate of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries and a company which will fulfil all the demands of the company and this process will be monitored by a mentor, similarly it will be reported to our industrialization portal and the impact analysis of the support provided will be monitored as well. Through this support model, we aim to transform our companies to technology manufacturing companies owning their unique products from mere technology users. With the help of this program, we wish that each of our companies would be recalled with a unique product.”

The EYDEP Launching Program ended with the signing of cooperation protocols between the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, KOSGEB and Savunma Sanayi Teknolojileri AŞ and the signing of a general protocol by the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, Aselsan, Havelsan, FNSS, MKEK, Roketsan and TAI companies and the signing of an EYDEP subcontractor representation agreement by the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries and SSTEK.

EYDEP aims to find out to what extend the companies in the defense and aerospace industry fulfil the requirements of the industry, to identify the level of their industrial competence, their level of preparation for technology development and the indigenization processes within the scope of a common perception.

With the EYDEP program, the capabilities and administrative/ technical/ financial capacities of the companies will be revised through a unique point of view and this data acquired will be regularly submitted to the shareholders along with the classification to be made in sublevels and the scores. As a result of this activity, the map of the competence levels of companies in various subjects can be prepared as well as the reports can be written on which areas the companies need to develop for their active participation in the defense industry (for industrial sustainability). Based on these reports, the development and support strategies for the evaluated companies will be built and support mechanisms related to these strategies will be launched. With the assessments to be conducted in regular periods, the given company’s progress over time, its development, the stages it goes through and the efficiency of the support programs can be monitored in detail. Moreover, it is regarded that this project will add quality to the assessments made due to various reasons over time by the main contractors and they will be integrated to these assessments. 

The program was initiated to minimize the foreign dependency in the defense area and it aims to institutionalize the capabilities separately and extend them throughout the industry. Through the acquisition of high quality products and technology development competencies by companies through these programs, the goal is the elimination of obstacles that stand before the domestic production of products and systems based on high technology required by the sector.