As Turkish defence industry plans for future investments, Siemens approaches the subject from another perspective. Siemens maintains that the digital industrialisation known as Industry 4.0 will catalyse processes to decrease costs and enhance competitive power. While the number of projects taken into consideration increases, we learned about Siemens’ products and its approach to the sector from Siemens Key Account Manager for National Security Fatih Oal and Country Channel Manager at Siemens PLM Software Alper Başer.
C4Defence: Siemens is a German brand. How do diplomatic relations between Turkey and Germany affect the Company’s view of Turkey?
Key Account Manager for National Security at Siemens Fatih Oal:
In fact, we regard ourselves more as a Turkish company with German roots than a German company. It is an honour that this definition has been acknowledged also by some state authorities.
As Siemens, we have been in this land for 161 years. We offer our services in Turkey to contribute to the society and economy. We have pioneered in many things in this country, and we are looking forward to delivering long-term, value-added projects and services, and to continue our support for growth, development, demonstration of power in the global arena and realisation of digital transformation. It is also possible to give some concrete examples for these efforts. We have lately undersigned various deals with respect to participation in critical national projects specifically related to naval platforms, and we take pride in these developments.
C4Defence: Instead of the highly popular concept like “Industry 4.0”, Siemens uses the term of “digital companies.” Eventually, what is the difference and even though the terminology differs, what does this system propose?
Fatih Oal: Digitalisation is a process of change, which moves at an incredible pace around the world. Turkish defence industry must adapt to this change in order to expand its target markets and raise higher revenues. Managing this process means going hand in hand with the world and having the upper hand in competition. Therefore, digitalisation is a requirement rather than an option for Turkish defence industry on its way to realise its objectives. In this vein, Siemens Turkey works for rapid digitalisation of Turkish defence industry and to help increase its competitive power and agility with solutions and services as well as local and global expertise.
