Aselsan History

• ASELSAN was established in 1975, to meet the communications electronics requirements of the Turkish Armed Forces.

• M. Hâcim KAMOY (Ph.D.) was appointed as our very first general manager on January 1976.

• ASELSAN completed its primary investment at Macunköy facilities in 1979 and within a year, the first production activities were initiated.

• In 1980 military man-pack and tank radio production had started and the first delivery had been made.

• ASELSAN designed its first hand-held radios and bank alarm systems in 1981.

• 1983 was the year for the first export business. By the end of 1983, ASELSAN had 1,434 personnel including 186 engineers.

• ASELSAN enlarged its product spectrum between 1982 and 1985. TBX exchange systems, field telephones, computer controlled central systems, and laser range finders were among the new products.

• ASELSAN contributed to the defense power of the Turkish Armed Forces by its Electronic Warfare and Data Terminals in 1986.

• In 1987 ASELSAN participated in NATO Joint Production Project of Stinger missiles and started the necessary investment for the production of thick film hybrid circuits.

• In 1988, ASELSAN produced the first avionic equipment: Inertial Navigation Systems for F-16 aircrafts. ASELSAN quality system was certified in accordance with AQAP-4 standards. Electronic Proximity Fuse contract signed with MOD in this year.

• In 1989, ASELSAN realized the first technology transfer program to Pakistan. Combat area tactical radios production started in NRTC facilities in Pakistan under ASELSAN's licence.

• In 1990, ASELSAN became 47th of the European Defense Electronics Companies. In the same year Field Artillery Battery Fire Control System and TV Transmitter production started. ASELSAN had 2,000 personnel including 330 engineers.

• In 1991, ASELSAN was organized under 3 divisions as Communications Division , Microwave and System Technologies Division, and Microelectronics, Guidance & Electro-Optic Division regarding the projects within the field activity. ASELSAN was chosen as the 127th of the world defense companies by International Defense Magazine. ASELSAN, by its treatment facilities, won the prize of the best company which cares for its environment.

• The most important characteristic of 1992 was the addition of the Radar Systems to ASELSAN's product spectrum. Implementations of TQM accelerated since 1992.

• In 1993, ASELSAN made a big achievement by establishing the Electro-Optics Technology Center at Akyurt Facilities. ASELSAN quality system was certified in accordance with ISO 9001 standards.

• In 1994, ASELSAN quality system was revised as AQAP-1 standards. Have Quick Radio production started.

• In 1995, ASELSAN engineers completed design activities of ASELSAN's first consumer product; the Mobile Phone. ASELSAN increased its exports to 19 countries. The Railway Transport System project in Power Electronics area started.

• In 1996, ASELSAN quality system was revised as AQAP-110 standards. TASMUS contract which provided a communication system with recent technology to Turkish Armed Forces was signed.

• In 1997, with its Mobile Phone 1919, which is completely designed by ASELSAN's engineers; Turkey took its position among the first nine countries who designed its own mobile phone.

• In 1998, ASELSAN manufactured and delivered various new equipments. Thermal camera systems, thermal weapon sights, thermal imaging equipment and laser designators were produced for the needs of the Turkish Armed Forces. Design of Automatic Toll Collection System was completed and production was started. A contract for National Monitoring System was signed with the General Directorate of Radio Communications. In addition, ASELSAN received the "Approved Producer" certificate from the American Government for the production of LN-93 Inertial Navigation Systems.

• 1999 was a year in which various equipment designed by ASELSAN gained considerable success. During the live fire tests of our Pedestal Mounted Stinger System, 100% success was achieved. On the other hand, design of the new mobile phone was completed and Europe Approval was taken. In addition, ASELSAN received new projects from Turkish Ministry of National Defense. Contracts were signed for the production of Air Defence Early Warning Command Control Systems for the design and production of Electronic Warfare Systems and X-Band Satellite Communication Systems.

• M. Hâcim KAMOY (Ph.D.) who had been the General Manager for the first 25 years retired as for November 2000 and Mr. Necip Kemal BERKMAN was appointed as the General Manager.

• 01 January 2006 - Mr. Cengiz ERGENEMAN was appointed as the General Manager

Aselsan

Aselsan is a producer of electronic devices in Turkey with 3,800 employees. It was founded in 1975 and 85% of the company are owned by foundation backed by the Turkish armed forces. The presentation is given by Mr. Davut Culha.

In 2005, Aselsan tried doing workflow management in their SAP installation by programming the workflows directly in ABAP. However, it was clear to them, that they needed an enterprise level workflow tool. They started looking for a possible system with the following features:

• suitable for enterprise level processes
• easy integration of SAP and Microsoft Outlook
• browser-based interface
• support for single-sign on
• features to analyze and improve business processes

They ended up selecting webMethods BPMS from Software AG. Another important requirement was also that the provider should have an office in Turkey including a Turkish version of the user interface. I think having a native user interface is an important point to stress, because people prefer to work with a software in their native language during their day-to-day work.

It was the aim to cover all purchasing processes with webMethods BPMS. As a first business process, they implemented the process "purchasing request". This was done in less than 6 months in 2009 according to Mr. Culha. Interesting, they modeled the process using the EPC notation using ARIS. They probably already smelled at that time that both companies, Software AG and IDS Scheer, will eventually merge. In the meantime, they automated almost 10 different processes from the purchasing domain. There are still a few ongoing process implementations.

The processes are triggered by the user either from a web-based portal or directly from a SAP transaction. If a step is assigned to a user, the user receives an email with a direct link to the process step along with a short description of what needs to be done. Due to single-sign on, no additional login is required by the user after clicking on the link in the email. This makes the solution very easy to use for their users. They also put much thought into the web portal. For example, they defined like a simple style guide so that all forms look the same. For occasional analysis, they integrated webMethods BPMS with SAP business warehouse.

The project presented by Mr. Culha seems to be a big success. Before automating the purchase request process, it took 4.5 days. Today, the same process is completed in 1.5 days. That's three times faster!