Lütfü Bilgen, General Manager of Endress+Hauser Türkiye, answered our questions.

In the interview we conducted, Lütfü Bilgen, General Director of Endress+Hauser Turkey, answered our questions. Bilgen provided information about Endress+Hauser's wide range of products and services.

Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your education and professional background?

I was born in Edirne in 1957. I studied Industrial Engineering at Middle East Technical University. I am married and have one son. I serve as General Director of Endress+Hauser Turkey. After graduating from university and before military service, I worked at a small company manufacturing metal parts. My interest in sales began there. After military service, I established a human resources management information system at Turkish Airlines, and later designed production and assembly lines at Profilo. I held various management positions at Unilever, gaining experience in industrial engineering across many different disciplines. Eventually, I joined İntek, the Turkish representative of Endress+Hauser, a company that sells industrial measurement and control products and provides service and solution services.

Could you provide information about Endress+Hauser's founding process and the stages it has gone through to the present day? The transformation of Endress+Hauser from a small venture to a global company has quite an interesting story; could you share it with us? How did Endress+Hauser achieve this great success?

Endress+Hauser was founded on 1 February 1953 by Georg H. Endress and Ludwig Hauser as L. Hauser KG. It took the name Endress and Hauser in 1957. The company initially began selling electronic capacitive level sensors imported from England. While Ludwig Hauser, one of our founders, provided the financing needed for the company's establishment, Georg H. Endress, a young engineer, put forward the ideas he was eager to implement. Similar to the founding stories of some other companies, it began with seven people producing capacitive level devices in a warehouse-converted factory. Subsequently, other principles in level measurement, flow measurement, pressure measurement and analysis devices followed one another, and today with thirteen thousand employees, they have become the world's largest company in measurement devices and systems. Following Ludwig Hauser's death, since 1975 all shares of our company have been owned by the Endress family, and currently we have 24 production facilities in 12 countries and sales offices and representatives serving customers in 120 countries.

How long has Endress+Hauser been operating in Turkey?

Endress+Hauser began operations in 1984 with İntek as a representative office in Istanbul. After İntek served as the Turkish representative of Endress+Hauser for 23 years, on 1 July 2007 Endress+Hauser established Endress+Hauser Electronics Inc. to further increase its presence in our country, sequentially establishing our head office in Istanbul, and regional offices in Adana, İzmir and Ankara.

Endress+Hauser offers level, flow, pressure and temperature measurement devices, sensors for liquid analysis, devices, systems and recording devices. Could you provide information about these products?

As you mentioned, our sensor product range at Endress+Hauser is very broad. At the same time, we provide complete solutions to factories through system components that complement these products. One of the important matters in the instrument industry is technology diversity. By this, I mean that each product to be measured and each process requires an appropriate measurement principle. For example, you can perform flow measurement with many different devices. We have flow meters operating on Coriolis, magnetic, thermal, vortex and ultrasonic principles. Each principle mentioned here has advantages and limitations. Where one is insufficient, another principle comes into play, and thanks to this rich technological diversity, you have the opportunity to present the most suitable measurement device for the measurement point to the user. Device segmentation's main motivation source is this. When we enter a facility, we have a product range and knowledge base capable of meeting all measurement needs of that facility from A to Z. Beyond this, the measurement quality and service life provided by the devices you offer are also important matters. Our position on this is extremely satisfactory. In customer fields we encounter devices with our old logo that have been successfully used for years since the facility was established. Also, our customers' satisfaction with device performance contributes to increased confidence in our devices.

What energy solutions does Endress+Hauser offer, and what kind of advantages does it bring to businesses?

Energy is one of the most important topics of our time. This is true both in daily life and in industry. For this reason, companies are focused on first understanding what they have in terms of energy and how to increase their efficiency. In line with this, we provide energy monitoring solutions to the sector. We have energy solutions specifically for steam, compressed air, heating, cooling and electrical applications. Let's look at the steam package as an example. As you know, steam boilers are used for steam production. Simply put, water is fed to the boiler and this water is heated with fuel and converted to steam through heat transfer. This produced steam is the medium that carries energy. For this reason, it must be carefully monitored and protected. The efficiency of boilers can decrease over time due to corrosion, scale buildup and similar causes. If this is not noticed in time and necessary maintenance is not performed, the amount of wasted energy and money will increase. The purpose of the system we provide for steam is to calculate the steam production efficiency of the boiler mentioned as a percentage. Thus the health of the process is monitored and losses are minimized. Such a system can pay for its investment cost in a short time. Details of the packages can be accessed from our website.

Inventory management is a critical issue; could you provide detailed information about your services and solutions in this area?

Inventory management is a process that can be managed in many different ways. While simply monitoring tank levels provides basic inventory management, on the other hand, inventory management can be conceived where raw materials, products and semi-finished goods inventories and shipments are automatically monitored and even managed through software. In addition to providing quality and reliable measurement devices, through SupplyCare software, which is the final point of our inventory management system solution, we can provide simple visualization solutions as well as tracking and forecasting inventory trends, receiving alerts at specified levels for supply and shipments, or integration options with ERP software for directly initiating the supply/shipment process. Furthermore, as you know, facilities have functional safety requirements they must comply with under the Seveso directive. Within this scope, risk analysis studies are conducted on the facility and the facility's SIL (Safety Integrity Level) is determined. Accordingly, the loops formed by the level sensors, valves and PLC components used must meet this SIL level. At Endress+Hauser, we both perform SIL calculations for these loops and provide sensors suitable for the required SIL level. Thus, while inventory monitoring is carried out, the facility's functional safety requirements are also met. In short, as Endress+Hauser we can provide solutions in any scope suitable to businesses' demands.

What kind of work do you do as Endress+Hauser in the fields of innovation and R&D? Could you provide information about your solutions and technologies aimed at increasing business efficiency and profitability?

As Endress+Hauser we place serious emphasis on innovation and R&D. The importance given to this topic has been increasing since the company's founding stage to the present. As a result of the work conducted, a serious patent portfolio has been formed. We have approximately 250 patent applications each year, and our colleagues working on this are rewarded. First and foremost, every measurement to be performed in a process offers an optimization and improvement opportunity for the facility. For this reason, all our devices provide facilities with the opportunity for efficiency improvement. We also have special solutions that provide significant efficiency increases. Among the first things that come to mind, leak detection system and overflow protection system can be cited as examples of such solutions. I would like to describe these systems simply. The leak detection system is especially used to detect a possible leak in cooling lines and provides both safety and savings to facilities. This system is based on flow measurement. The overflow protection system, as its name suggests, especially provides overflow protection based on level measurement in storage tanks. In addition to the facility safety it provides, the system maximizes the tank's usage capacity. Thus the efficiency of storage tanks is increased. Beyond these, high-precision filling systems and facility asset management solutions also enable increased facility efficiency.

What criteria are prioritized when Endress+Hauser investment plans are drawn up? Are there investment plans for Endress+Hauser in the coming periods; if so, what are they?

In Endress+Hauser culture, our customers come first. We want to support our customers in developing their products and producing more efficiently. To achieve this, we need to know our customers' processes as well as they do and be able to feel their problems as keenly as they do. One of the best ways to achieve this is to be close to our customers. In this context, we have E+H offices in many countries around the world, and regional offices and representatives in these offices. The aim is to provide customers with the most suitable solutions in the shortest time. When drawing up our investment plans, this has always been our priority. As Endress+Hauser we achieved the same objective in our country. After establishing our head office in Istanbul, our offices in Adana, then İzmir and finally Ankara have successively begun service. In the coming periods, our goal is to open new offices in different regions and cities so that we can be closer to and reach more of our customers.