We Had a Pleasant Interview with Fatih Çeliker

An Enjoyable Interview with Fatih Çeliker We conducted a highly pleasant interview with Fatih Çeliker, Engineering Solutions Manager at KROHNE Turkey. Mr. Çeliker shared with us information about the company's objectives and innovation activities. Enjoy the read.

Could you tell our readers about yourself and your background?

I completed my education from primary school through university in Eskişehir, my hometown. After graduating from Eskişehir Osmangazi University's Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 2009, I began my career as a field engineer at a contracting company operating on a shopping mall project in Eskişehir.     In 2012, I moved to Istanbul to work at BSH Home Appliances as a technical product manager in the after-sales service department. After spending two years there, in 2014 I began my career at KROHNE, where I still work today, starting as a service engineer. I continued my field work and after-sales service experience from my previous positions and added instrumentation expertise at KROHNE. With a focus particularly on oil and gas sector applications, I continued my work in 2017 as Engineering Services Manager at KROHNE. During this period, I was heavily involved in technical service, commissioning and engineering activities for turnkey system solutions provided by KROHNE. In 2020, with the aim of increasing sales, engineering and support activities for both KROHNE's global and local solutions, I have continued my career as Engineering Solutions Manager in the Engineering Solutions department established by KROHNE.

What would you like to say about your company? What criteria form your success policy?

KROHNE is one of the world's leading field measurement instrument manufacturers and suppliers and is a pioneer company in producing and developing flow, level, temperature, analytical and pressure measurement products used across all industrial sectors globally, utilizing innovative and reliable process measurement technologies. KROHNE, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, was founded in 1921 in Duisburg, Germany, and is a 100% family-owned company. It has over 4,100 employees with 16 production facilities in 11 countries worldwide and conducts R&D activities with up to 400 employees, continuously investing in this area. In addition to instrument design and manufacturing, KROHNE SOLUTIONS operates in various specialized sectors such as turnkey package systems, software and maritime sector-specific systems. In Turkey, KROHNE has been operating for over 50 years and has pioneered by bringing many technological innovations to our country in its field. KROHNE Turkey carries out its activities through its headquarters in Istanbul as well as six regions: Istanbul Europe, Istanbul Anatolia, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa and Adana. In all regions, we have competent staff supporting our customers in sales, marketing, service and engineering, and in some of our regions, we have official partner companies. Behind our success, in addition to KROHNE's continuous improvement investment and continuous innovation strategies at the global level, I can say that our specialist team in Turkey that continuously renews itself and grows, as well as our partners, play an important role.

Which sectors do you serve? What are your product varieties?

As KROHNE, we serve all industries with industrial measurement instrumentation and engineering solution demands. To classify the main ones, we can list oil and gas, steel, food and beverage, water and wastewater, energy, chemical, mining, paper, maritime and nuclear industries. For use in these sectors, KROHNE offers, among others, electromagnetic, ultrasonic, mass (Coriolis), vortex and variable area flowmeters, as well as guided or non-contact radar level meters, pressure and differential pressure transmitters, temperature elements and transmitters, and analytical measurement devices such as pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen and free chlorine. Additionally, KROHNE has specialized solutions in addition to standard products in some of the sectors mentioned above. To give examples, measurement skid systems for oil and gas applications, flow computers, pipeline management systems, ship ballast level systems and software for use in the maritime sector, and various systems, equipment and software reporting fuel consumption are also available.

Last year was a year when pandemic effects were heavily felt, and these effects continue to the present day. How was your company affected and what measures did you take?

Yes, as you mentioned, last year and even the year before that, COVID-19 negatively affected the entire world and consequently our country. As KROHNE, considering the demands of our customers both globally and in Turkey, we made some changes to our working methods. Even during the periods of longest shutdowns, our colleagues working in the office continued to work from home, while our colleagues in sales and service departments working in the field were present wherever needed for customer satisfaction. To ensure our customers were not harmed, we continued our shipments uninterrupted and our technical service department continuously kept all necessary documents ready for inter-provincial travel, working to address our customers' needs with the same speed and care. I hope such periods are not experienced again.

What is the importance of R&D for your company? Could you tell us about the R&D projects you have recently conducted?

When we consider that KROHNE has approximately 10% of its total workforce dedicated to R&D activities conducted with the goal of continuous innovation, I can say that R&D is extremely important for KROHNE. In addition to R&D activities conducted for physical measurement, the foundation of instrumentation, KROHNE has recently focused on areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Ethernet communication, which will accelerate and facilitate device information and process tracking. Furthermore, KROHNE is in continuous cooperation with various universities around the world, and "International KROHNE Technology Days" are organized where all stakeholders involved in this cooperation come together. Through this program, briefly called "TechDays," meetings are held where everyone involved in R&D activities within KROHNE and various guests can present their valuable ideas. Inspired by these meetings, as an example of some R&D activities conducted with SAMSON, a company that has partnered with KROHNE for many years, we can mention Focus-On, an intelligent measurement controller that contains all measurements of valves, flowmeters, pressure transmitters and temperature transmitters, or in other words, autonomous actuators. In summary, R&D activities together with the concept of continuous innovation are indispensable for KROHNE.

Could you tell us about your objectives for the coming years? What innovations await your company in the coming years?

KROHNE operates on the basis of strategic plans aimed at continuous growth both globally and throughout Turkey in the short and long term. Planning and investments made within the framework of KROHNE's mission and values aim to present all opportunities brought by the latest technology to our customers both as products and solutions. As the KROHNE Turkey team, we also operate in the light of the same mission. In this context, our objective as KROHNE Turkey is to contribute with correct instrumentation solutions to proper project designs for all types of industries and to increase operational efficiency with high-precision measurement technologies developed with the latest technology. We must remember that no process management that is not properly designed and does not perform correct measurements can be efficient and purposeful. Our aim is to ensure the highest efficiency, lowest cost and highest benefit through field instruments and system solutions we have developed in all industrial fields in which we operate.