Bosch Industry 4.0 solutions in practice

Stuttgart, Germany – Bosch is a leading user and a leading provider of Industry 4.0. The company is digitalizing and giving connectivity to both its own plants and those of its customers. Industry 4.0 solutions are first tested and validated in-house before Bosch markets them to other companies. This means customers benefit from the experience gathered in some 270 Bosch plants and over 700 logistics centers worldwide. One of Bosch’s lead plants for this new technology is in Feuerbach, a suburb of Stuttgart. The plant has implemented numerous Industry 4.0 solutions in production and logistics. Here is a selection.

ActiveCockpit – manufacturing data at a glance

Bosch Rexroth’s ActiveCockpit intelligent communications platform can visualize data to make it easy for anybody to understand. The large display gives workers information on the current status of production. To do this, the platform processes and visualizes data in real time. The increased transparency this brings to factory operations paves the way for clear, sound assessments. Workers and companies all benefit, as it means problems can be identified immediately, downtimes reduced, and quality increased.

Nexeed – making work easier with software

The Nexeed Production Performance Manager ensures systematic improvements in production by helping workers make decisions quickly and easily. To do so, it gathers and harmonizes real-time production and machine data from a variety of sources in the manufacturing environment, gives it a clear structure, and presents it to workers on their mobile devices. This saves both time and money.

Intelligent supermarket – more transparency in logistics

Bosch Connected Industry’s intelligent supermarket is an optimized solution for manufacturing-related warehouses. It involves equipping individual small load carriers or belts with technology including RFID tags and digital kanban cards. This automates the process of booking materials in and out, which used to have to be done manually. Not only does this make life easier for workers, but it also means the supermarket’s stock is available in near real time. In addition, the system indicates the belt onto which incoming stock should be directed. The intelligent supermarket is currently being piloted in the Feuerbach plant. Once the project has been successfully concluded, the solution will be made available in the market.

Transport Management – intelligent planning for intralogistics

Bosch Connected Industry’s sophisticated Transport Management solution facilitates dynamic planning of intra-plant logistics. The system stores all vehicles with their load status, position, route, and maximum load capacity. For incoming orders, this information is used as the basis for selecting the right means of transportation for the goods. Transport Management can also optimize existing milk run processes: using data from the system, bus-style routes that previously had to include a stop at all predefined waypoints can now focus on goods that are actually ready to be picked up. The system displays up-to-date information about routes and shipments on drivers’ tablets.