The German Textile Machinery Association (VDMA) Public Relations Manager, Nicolai Strauch, stating that Turkey’s proximity to the European market was a strong advantage, also mentioned that they had formed significant partnerships with the universities in Turkey. Mr. Strauch answered the questions of Tekstil Dünyası Publication Group on various topics ranging from the developments taking place within the industry to the ongoing activities of the Association at VDMA’s Headquarters located in Frankfurt am Main.
What kind of organizations does VDMA carry out within the scope of its worldwide promotional activities? How many active members are you currently operating with?
In November there will be a VDMA conference and B2B forum in the United States, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Afterwards the same format will also take place in Mexico City for 2 days. Besides these sales conferences & symposia, we also initiated a German Pavilion at the Irantex, to take place in September in Tehran and also for the Techtextil India also to take place in September these are our main activities for this year. At the moment we have around 130 members in the Textile Machinery Association. You know VDMA as a whole organization is separated in several specialized associations, so the entire VDMA has over 3.000 member companies’ in different machinery segments.
German textile machinery is globally known for its innovative technologies and quality. What kind of approach-method does VDMA members work through in terms of quality and technological development?
The secret behind the success and the quality of the German products and German machinery is the quality of the German Universities. For textile machinery engineering we have three very well-known Institutes in Aachen, Dresden and inDenkendorf, close to Stuttgart. These Institutions as well as other universities have always produced high class engineers. The engineers, have the ability to transform scientific research into marketable products.It is also important to mention the research & development efforts of our member companies. For the textile machinery branch it is always a challenge to get junior engineers because there is a high competition for young talents between the different machinery sectors but also between the machinery and other technologically oriented branches like automobile, aircrafts and suchlike. So the textile institutes in Dresden, Aachen and Denkendorf have always to compete with other engineering faculties and with other technology disciplines one can study. We as VDMA try to help the universities with our Walter Reiners Foundation, Mr. Reiners was a Textile Machinery Manager in the 1960’s, Head of Schlafhorst and he used to be the President of the VDMA and of the Textile Machinery Association. hHe initiated this Foundation in the late 1960’s. We are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Foundation end of this year. The celebration will be on the occasion of the Aachen-Dresden-Denkendorf International Textile Conference end of November in Stuttgart. Every year, the Foundation grants promotion prizes for outstanding dissertation and master thesis as well as creativity prizes for clever bachelor and semester papers. The Foundation financially supports excursions to VDMA member companies and to the leading trade fair ITMA, through which students regularly gain an insight into practice.
How successful are German textile machinery manufacturers at implementing the advancements taking place within Industrie 4.0 to their technologies? What kind of practices are they engaging with respect to this field?
The internet having already changed profoundly the private life, the internet of things and services in the meantime enters the textile production process. Some aspects, however, which are summarized under the term Industry 4.0 are not new for the textile industry and the textile machinery engineering. Remote services used for maintenance and process optimisation have been applied for many years. The interconnection of state-of-the-art information technology and manufacturing processes, however, is on track. The speed factory on schedule of the manufacturer of sports articles with the three stripes shows where the road leads: Production of sport shoes of batch size 1. At ITMA in Milan, there were good examples for Industrie 4.0. For instance a software tool that networks extensive machine parks with up to a thousand machines just to mention one example.
How would you evaluate the first quarter of 2017 with regards to the global sales generated by the VDMA Member textile machinery manufacturers? What sales figures do you aim to achieve by the end of 2017?
2016 was not a good year but also not a very bad one. The production of textile machinery and accessories last year reached 3.1 Billion Euros and the export was 2.9 Billion Euros, which was a decrease of around 7 %, all together.In China we witnessed over capacities in the market, for example in the man-made fiber sector so the Chinese did not invest very much in the last 2 years. But the order income in the first few months of 2017 was good. The VDMA sales forecast for 2017 compared with 2016 is +5 %. The Turkish businesses picked up again in the end of 2016 and in the first month of 2017. Frankly speaking, we are well underway.
What is the position of the Turkish market with respect to the German Textile Machinery Manufacturers?
Turkey has always been one of the top markets for German Textile Machinery, it has always been among the top 5 in the last years. The EU and the US are the two biggest markets for most textile producing nations. Europe as the number one destination for Turkish textiles has to do with deliveries. Turkish textile factories are able to fill orders from Europe very quickly.VDMA and its member companies can proudly look back not just to years but to decades of close cooperation with Turkish companies and universities. A good example is the Ege university. The partnership between this renowned institute and VDMA is lasting now for more than 30 years. It is also worth to mention that we have media partners like Textil Dünyası who support us for example on the occasion of our Symposia in Turkey. VDMA and its member companies can proudly look back not just to years but to decades of close cooperation with Turkish companies and universities. A good example is the Ege university. The partnership between this renowned institute and VDMA is lasting now for more than 30 years. It is also worth to mention that we have media partners like Textil Dünyası who support us for example on the occasion of our Symposia in Turkey. The cultural differences between textile business men from Turkey, China, India and Bangladesh would provide enough content for a dissertation!Turkey is more or less on the doorstep of Germany. This also means that the cultural difference is much smaller compared to countries in the Far East.Turkey is more or less on the doorstep of Germany. This also means that the cultural difference is much smaller compared to countries in the Far East.
What kind of strategy have you defined regarding the Turkish markets? Will you carry out any organizations so as to come together with the Turkish textile manufacturers?
At the İstanbul exhibition in June 2016 we had a very strong German participation. For this year we haven’t planned any projects in Turkey. On the occasion of next year’s fair in spring time we will have a strong German participation again. And in future, I am sure that we will have a conference or similar event as we did in the past in Turkey again. The Turkish textile industry is aiming for higher quality products and higher added value. This provides good opportunities for the VDMA member companies.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I already mentioned one Anniversary, the 50 years of the Walter Reiners Foundation. 2017 we can also celebrate the 125th Anniversary of VDMA. In order to promote this not just among machinery specialists but also for the wider public VDMA put together a series of multimedia reports. Published on the new website https://humans-machines-progress.com the reports show: Machines are not an end in itself for the machinery engineering industry. Machines are the means to make progress come true for people and to meet challenges like energy, mobility, infrastructure and health. For instance the Textile Machinery Association contributed with a multimedia article about the topic ‘light-weighted design’ or in other words textiles that help to decrease the weight of cars and airplanes and so to minimise the fuel consumption. Starting point for these clever solutions are textile machines.
