Umut Erdağ, Chairman of the Executive Board of Mikrolift Engineering Lift Automation Systems, told us that their journey started when the two university students selected the lift check cards as their graduation thesis topic and shared with us the 23 year of journey and operations of Mikrolift.  

Mr. Umut Erdağ, can you tell us about the starting story of your Company and its operation field? 

Our story started with the selection of the two university students the lift check cards as their graduation thesis topic. These two students, excited and idealistic, had started the way as amateurs at first and then became professionalized, yet never lost their exciment by adapting the motto of “whatever we do we should do the best with the best quality”. We have completed our 21st year in this road extending from Konya to Istanbul without ever losing our excitement by developing technology and by manufacturing. Mikrolift has become a large family with more than 60 excited, quality dedicated personnel by keeping it first day excitement in its production facilities in Konya and Istanbul. Our focus areas are market analysis and studies on the development of the existing products and new products and after- sale services.  

Can you enlighten us about your production facilities and machinery-park?

We operate in our two smart production facilities located in Istanbul and Konya. We manufacture in environmentally friendly buildings, a modern machinery-park at our facilities with our valuable personnel in a total of 3 thousands and 500 square meter area, with 2 thousands and 200 square meter of closed area. Our production lines are checked automatically completely and they run by the world standards without compromising quality and our criteria and with the ideal of doing the best. We have the montly production capacity of nearly 30,000 cards of various sizes in a single shift. Our capacity usage ratio is around 80 percent. Our supply, production, quality control, shipment, sales, accounting and finance departments are managed and directed by using modern methods. We manage the processes and assess inputs-outputs with professional perfection and by our systems, using our resources accurately. We give a 5-year guarantee for many of our products. This does not happen only by a promise, as you know. Our machines used in the production line are the best of their kind. We supply the components used in the cards we manufacture in our machinery, which have a capacity of SMD typesetting of 100,000 components per hour, from high standard brand names and distributors.

Please tell us about your product groups and services.

Our product range consists of lift check cards, motor drives, integrated (check card + motor drive) lift check devises, emergency rescue cards, door check cards, sound cards, size photocells and metal accessories of outsourced floor and cabin buttons and serial/ready installation systems and some auxiliary cards related with the lifts. Our own R&D unit generates any software included in our production. Moreover, all of our products have the Liftinstitute Quality Certification. It would be fair to say that Mikrolift products, today, check nearly two fifths of the lifts installed in the 81-20 standards in Turkey. Our technical team work in after-sale services in addition to production and are ready for service within the country and overseas 7/24.    

Do you have new products?

Our new products are integrated lift check devices, MLCOMBO 40 ve MLCOMBO 50. We manufacture these devices for parallel and serial connections and they will be introduced soon and a new intensive introduction activity will be started. Field tests for MLCOMBO 40 and 50 are continuing successfully. Serial production will be started soon. Such type of products will replace the check cards in the near future. We will become competitive in the market with the MILCOMBO series. The product will shine thanks to its volume, price and installation convenience and for taking a little space in the panel and being panel manufacturer friendly. We hope that our new product will heat the market considerably and it has the distinctness of competitiveness and leadership.  

What can you tell us about Mikrolift’s R&D activities?

One entire floor of our building in Istanbul has been reserved for only R&D studies. One of our partners works in this department personally. R&D is our sum and substance. Our human resource and finance investments that we have made on this matter will ensure us a robust and great structure in the future. The competitive environment created by the R&D studies draws the interest of the other players in the sector on this issue and therefore, it leads to the building of a respectful and expanding trade ground by the quality process and other business running processes.  Current products are renovated with the feedbacks and claims of the final users and panel manufacturers and new products are designed based on this information.

Do you have any export activities and targests? Please enlighten us. 

The export aspect makes up a part of our current sales. Our expanding foreign trade staff is determining new target markets and analyzing the other market countries and our operations are getting more intensive and continuing with our solution suggestions directed to the target markets.

Mikrolift prioritizes proceeding with our panel manufacturer partners and providing technical support and the right service to our customers. Our target in exporting is to reserve the largest share from our total production to export. We plan to achieve this by increasing the export rate along with the domestic market rather than by dropping the production in line with the declining domestic market and by increasing our export share.