SIEMENS

Gökce’s blue dress flutters in the wind. Every morning she takes the ferry across the Bosporus, from the Asian side, where she lives, to the European side, where she attends college and has a studio. The young artist, whose work already has been shown twice in art exhibitions in Turkey sponsored by Siemens, loves the morning crossing. "Every time, I am conscious of the fact that I am traveling between two continents," she says.
Jenny also makes the brief trip every morning, only in the opposite direction, from her apartment on the European side of the city to her job on the Asian side. In the coming months she will be setting up a human resources department for a Swiss company, and then will move back home to Berlin.
Gökce Er and Jenny Baylam: two women in their late twenties who love Istanbul, work here, and feel at home amid the charming chaos of this megacity with it 13 million inhabitants. "Although maybe just a little less chaos wouldn’t be bad," says Jenny. Bringing the infrastructure up to the latest standards and making life in cities like Istanbul even more attractive — that’s also Siemens’ objective. And that begins with the morning "intercontinental" ferry crossing.
For decades the Bosporus ferries have served as one of the main components in Istanbul’s traffic infrastructure, and as one of its tourist attractions — in addition to the Hagia Sofia, which is about 1,500 years old, and the city’s countless palaces and bazaars. But many of the ferries are showing their age. Their propellers are turned directly by heavy diesel engines, running usually under peak load. "The poor efficiency of this outdated technology is bad for the environment and harmful for the engines," explains Emre Goren, a sales specialist at Siemens’ Drive Technologies Division. "With conventional drive engineering, variable adjustment of the engine speed isn’t possible, so the engines wear out faster. And that means they must be serviced more frequently." That’s why IDO, the company that operates the vessels, has chosen diesel-electric drive systems from Siemens for the latest generation of Bosporus ferries.
These systems convert the power of four diesel engines into electrical energy, which is then finely adjusted to serve the needs of each propeller. Individual diesel engines can thus be shut off, for instance while maneuvering to moor at a landing. The remaining engines continue to run at their maximum efficiency — with less sooty emissions, better fuel efficiency, and cost savings. And thanks to the reduced level of engine vibration, passengers enjoy a more comfortable trip. "Some of our captains were skeptical when Siemens delivered the first diesel-electric drives for ferries in Turkey to us," says Nejdet Oguz, Chief Engineer on the Kadiköy, one of the new Bosporus ferries. But skepticism has given way to satisfaction. "We can maneuver the ferries with greater certainty now, save on diesel fuel, and there is less maintenance work than before — which means we can go home earlier to our families," says Oguz.
The Bosporus ferries — although they travel at a modest 25 km/h — are one of the fastest means of getting around in Istanbul. They are used every day by approximately 250,000 travelers, and each vessel has a capacity of about 1,800 people. Seemingly endless traffic jams on the city’s main thoroughfares turn even short trips of just a few kilometers into journeys that can easily last an hour. The two Bosporus bridges, in particular, are chronically congested.

High-tech Race Track. For those who want to see something that really moves fast — albeit in circles — the place to be is Otodrom, the Formula 1 race circuit east of the city. Solutions that Siemens supplied for the circuit, which went into operation in 2005, include electric switchgear, optical fiber connections for data transfer, the telephone system — which more than 600 journalists rely on for international connections during Grand Prix races — and the crucial elements of every race: the signalling system, complete with LED starting lights, the chronometry system, and the track video monitoring system, all of which are from Siemens.
Levent Pekün, Technical Director of the race circuit, is operating a joystick in the control center. During races Charlie Whiting, the Formula 1 Race Director, sits where Pekün is, in front of 30 monitors that provide an overview of the entire circuit. Pekün selects one of the cameras, zooms in, and moves it first to the left, then to the right. "In the event of an accident, quickly getting an overview can save lives," he says, pushing a button to play a video of an accident at the start of a race in 2008. All races are stored on servers and accessible for determining causes of damage later. "This Siemens solution already has helped us many times," he adds.

Green Factory. Not far from the Formula 1 track, in Gebze, is a new Siemens plant for switchgear systems, some of which are in operation at the Otodrom. The Siemens plant, which officially opened in April 2009, delivers products to customers all over the world. "It is one of the most modern plants in all of Turkey, and one of the most modern Siemens plants worldwide," says Siemens Energy Power Distribution Division manager Kerim Oal, who is responsible for the plant and has been involved in switchgear manufacturing in Turkey since 1961. Istanbul’s favorable geographic location between Europe and Asia, as well as its large and well-qualified workforce, make it an ideal location.
The number of panels produced at the plant has reached more than 5,000 per year — a 30 % increase in production since last fiscal year, which is when the plant was inaugurated. What is remarkable about this is that it has been achieved without increasing the number of employees, but rather through efficiency gains realized primarily by means of lean production methods. Raw materials such as sheet copper, for instance, are delivered at the start of production and pass through the big, light-flooded production hall in a single process, instead of being transported to other production sites after individual steps.
The plant’s efficiency has had profound effects on its energy demand. "Compared to our previous location, we use 25 % less energy and 50 % less water," says Oal, who points out that the facility’s architecture makes use of natural light. Desk lamps are equipped with sensors that turn off the lights when no movement is detected after an extended period. And waste water is purified in one of the facility’s two water treatment units and used to water the thriving gardens in the plant’s inner courtyards.