We closely follow the new technologies and applications related to the automotive industry and carry out studies for digital transformation in line with our needs in order to increase operational efficiency and improve customer satisfaction for the vehicles we produce. In this way, we continue to renew both our operations and our products in line with our “Life is Renewal” philosophy. Through our inter-departmental digital transformation committee, we closely follow the new technologies and the opportunities they create, through our rapid experiencing and prototyping approach. Within the framework of this approach, we aim to increase customer experience by following the process based on the data received from the vehicle and the production line, and we improve our processes by creating a value from such data with advanced analytical techniques, thus enabling the workforce to use technology quickly and efficiently to focus on value-added jobs. For example, with our data analytics project that was granted the International Quality Award 2019, we estimate the warranty costs of the vehicles using historical data, allowing us to ensure more efficient management of financial resources and to create new opportunities in R&D, design, and spare parts processes.

We actively follow each of the digital technologies (Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, IoT, RPA, Image Processing, VR, AR, Robotics, etc.) being developed around the world, and ensure a company-wide focus on such technologies with the responsibility of a “technology leader”. While increasing the level of awareness of our company regarding rapidly developing technologies making use of the strength of our academy, we systematically develop our technical competencies as required by digital transformation. To ensure operational efficiency within our production facility, we manage the digitization process in a dynamic approach through a comprehensive committee that reports regularly the progress and outcomes related to the process to senior management at monthly meetings.  The ideas of our employees about the process improvement are subjected to pre-qualification and submitted to the top management for final evaluation and decision regarding whether they will be implemented as a project. As a result of the studies carried out:

• The introduction of “TofaşGO” application, our corporate internal communication platform, in 2017, allowed us to provide bidirectional and instant communication within the company, to support in-house entrepreneurship and idea sharing, and to gather all applications of Tofaş in one application. Having received many national and international awards, TofaşGO has been used more actively by our employees day by day. In 2019, we continued to improve the application in line with the feedback we received from our employees and added various features, such as live broadcasting, social grouping, receiving personalized notifications, and giving real-time feedback in all directions.
• With our “IoT” platform, we can now collect many data within the company from different points, especially in the industrial area, make instant decisions automatically, or create the necessary reports for decision making processes. We successfully completed many technical, administrative and financial forecasting projects with the help of “data science” and “learning systems” by processing the data we produce. Through this infrastructure, we can track quality errors and equipment, carry out simultaneous predictive maintenance works, and monitor and track many of our processes, including those on-the-line. Thanks to “robotic process automation”, we have eliminated many jobs that did not create any added value and achieved a leaner and more efficient operation level. In 2019, we continued our investments on robotic transformation for basic infrastructure and office processes.
• We are the first and only Turkish company that has taken on the leadership of the Robopartner Project, which is carried out under the EU Framework Program (FP7) to extend the use of robots in assembly lines and to develop business models, methods, software, and equipment for common, productive, and safe robot/human working environments.
• We evaluate the risks and opportunities on autonomous driving and connectivity, one of the most important developments in the automotive industry and follow a road map compatible with FCA’s strategy. As part of the digitalization of vehicles, we are carrying out studies on providing communication between on-board electronic units.

The studies for the “Fiat Yol Arkadaşım Connect” (FYA Connect) Project, which was developed within Tofaş as the first remote access technology in its class, were completed in 2018, and the current number of users of FYA Connect has reached 8,217. With the improvements in 2019, FYA Connect is now applicable to all models produced by Tofaş. Developed in line with our digitalization strategies and based on the expectations and needs of our customers, such as safety and comfort, FYA Connect was designed to add a new dimension to our customers’ relations with their vehicles and to communication of Tofaş with customers. Running based on connectivity technology, the platform allows vehicle owners to remotely connect to their vehicles via a smartphone or computer. FYA Connect continued to increase the services it provides to users in 2019, considering the opportunities created by technological developments as well as user experience and feedback. Developed to convey to drivers security-related information and guidance, commercial service offers, and gamification suggestions of various stakeholders aimed at improving the driving experience, FYA Connect is also forming the infrastructure of a platform economy which is being established.