Spotlight on Sami Caglar, managing director of SFL

18th Mar 2009

Sami Caglar is managing director of SFL, supplier of standard and bespoke flue, chimney and exhaust systems to organisations throughout the world

1. What excites you about your day-to-day work?
Everyday is a different challenge and everyday is a different solution. One day I could be working with the team on improvements in house, and the next day working on marketing strategies.

2. In a typical day, what is guaranteed to put a smile on your face?
Apart from receiving a large order, seeing our employees learning and using their knowledge to overcome problems and improve their workplace, is definitely the top reason to make me smile.

3. What has been your greatest achievement in the last year?
Despite the first six months of the recession orders were up on last year and we have improved our bottom line significantly compared with previous years. That is down to our fantastic team working together and implementing lean operations into business. We started implementing lean three years ago, at the time I was working as Lean Operations Manager. All the good work we have done over that period now started to give us a competitive edge. That’s how we won the award for “Best Transformation of the Year” from the North Devon Manufacturing Association this year.

4. On a day-to-day basis, what do you find frustrating about your work?
Routine problems that we solve day-to-day.

5. What inspired you to work in manufacturing?
My father. He was a manufacturing engineer and he used to be the method chief at Renault. I grew up in factories as I went to work with him at the weekends. Most of my toys were screw drivers and broken radios. In my view an economy can not survive without manufacturing.

6. What makes your company stand out from the rest? How do you beat the competition?
We are known as the best quality product in the market. That is due to us taking quality seriously and never cutting corners. We are a British manufacturer and 99 per cent of our Tier 1 suppliers are in the UK and we don’t have any plans to move our manufacturing to any other country. Instead, we improve our business through lean to help keep us competitive.

7. What hopes / concerns do you have about the future of manufacturing in the UK?
The UK has been dependant on the finance sector since the 1980s and manufacturing faded away. I have seen so many companies closing or moving their production from the UK and hope that the government can help bring them back to boost the economy.

8. What piece of advice would you give to any manufacturing newcomers?
Never give up. There is always better ways of doing things and sooner or later you will find them.

9. Who is your hero?
I have many of them but feel that every single person working in the manufacturing industry is a hero. To name but a few, Taichi Ohno, Daniel T. Jones, Jack Welch.

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